LOC18:37
15:37 GMT
PARIS, Nov 23 (KUNA) -- French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner will meet
over lunch Saturday with his Algerian counterpart Murad Medelci to discuss
bilateral relations and regional issues linked to North Africa and the
Euro-Mediterranean project of President Nicolas Sarkozy.
The two men were supposed to have met earlier in the week but those talks
were postponed because Kouchner was involved in intensive lobbying in Beirut
for an end to the Lebanese crisis.
Speaking in Paris this week, Medelci said that there was "some progress" in
bilateral, cooperation relations but more synchronization was needed.
He also confirmed that a State visit to Algeria by President Nicolas
Sarkozy was in the final stages of preparation, although he did not give
details of dates.
The visit is expected before the end of the year, according to diplomats
here.
Medelci said after addressing the French Parliamentary Foreign Affairs
Commission that there was a need to synchronize "commercial objectives,
investment objectives and human exchanges objectives" and he called for more
trade and investment and more freedom of movement between the two countries.
The Algerian minister said the two Presidents would certainly evaluate the
situation during Sarkozys forthcoming visit. He also said that there would
surely be contracts signed between the two countries, but that this was not
the most important element of the visit.
As well as evaluating the current situation, Sarkozy and President
Abdelaziz Bouteflika will have to trace a line for the future, Medelci said.
Concerning Sarkozys Euro-Mediterranean project, the Algeria minister said
there were "a lot of ambiguities concerning its content" and there remained
many things to be clarified. (end)
jk.ajs
KUNA 231837 Nov 07NNNN