THE French Foreign Minister, Mr Herve de Charette, will make a long delayed official visit to Algeria this week, signalling an improvement in the politically fraught ties between Paris and Algiers.
The French Foreign Ministry said Mr de Charette would visit the former North African colony tomorrow and on Thursday at the invitation of the Algerian Foreign Minister, Mr Ahmed Attaf. It will be the first top ranking contact between the two governments since a row last November when President Liamine Zeroual of Algeria abruptly cancelled a planned meeting with President Jacques Chirac at the UN in New York.
The Foreign Minister's visit comes after reports that Mr Djamal Zitouni, the ousted head of Algeria's radical Armed Islamic Group (GIA), had been killed in an ambush on July 16th. He is believed to have master minded numerous attacks on French targets, including an attack on the French embassy housing compound, the hijacking of an Air France plane at Algiers airport in 1994, and the murder of seven French monks.
Mr Zitouni is also suspected of ordering a wave of bombings in France last year in which eight people were killed and almost 200 injured.
The French Foreign Ministry stressed it did not want to be drawn into Algeria's civil strife. An estimated 50,000 people have died since the army intervened in January 1992 to cancel a general election which the Islamic Salvation Front was set to win.
French officials want to encourage Gen Zeroual's dialogue with secular opposition parties, and the parliamentary elections being held next year, although they are sceptical of claims by Algiers that it is gradually stamping out "residual terrorism".
Early yesterday, a bomb exploded in a teahouse in the Algerian capital, killing one person and injuring 10 others, according to Algerian security services.
The homemade bomb exploded at 12:50 p.m. in the El Biar district of Algiers.
This marks the fourth attack on a cafe since mid July, when a new flare up of violence began after Gen Zeroual resumed talks with the opposition.
The dialogue excludes the outlawed Islamic Salvation Front (FIS), despite a request by some parties that the fundamentalist organisation should be included.