Algeria - French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy drew both cheers and criticism on a visit to ex-colony Algeria on Tuesday, winning praise for an easing of visa rules but anger at his failure to apologise for colonial misdeeds.
Sarkozy, who was meeting President Abdelaziz Bouteflika on the second and last day of his trip, is visiting the giant north African oil-exporting country, France's touchiest former overseas possession, to discuss counter-terrorism and migration.
Government daily El Moudjahid said Monday's announcement by Sarkozy, a French presidential contender, of a streamlining of visa rules would help to build trust in view of the importance for both countries of the large Algerian community in France.
The measure, sure to please the estimated one million voters of Algerian origin back home, will shorten the time it takes Algerians to get a French visa by 15 days. At the moment it can take weeks or months to get the much sought after document.
The decision by Sarkozy "can only serve to further strengthen the trust and human exchanges between the two traditionally friendly countries", Moudjahid said.
Algerian authorities have said they see a loosening of visa restrictions as fundamental to advancing a stalled attempt to secure a friendship treaty between the two countries, whose relations have been uneasy for decades.
"SHARP TONGUE"
The 1954-1962 war of independence cost the lives of 1.5 million Algerians, according to the Algerian government. Many French also perished. Bouteflika has repeatedly called on France to apologise for killings committed during the colonial era to help improve bilateral ties.
French authorities have responded by urging "mutual respect", an approach Sarkozy has followed on his Algeria trip.
Sarkozy's unreadiness to provide an apology and his tough policies on immigration drew fire from several commentators.
Influential daily El Watan said Sarkozy should not have been allowed to place a wreath on Monday at a monument to Algerians killed in the independence war, explaining that this honour was normally only for visiting heads of state and government.
"Public opinion here has learned to know and abhor this ambitious and provocative person, a crafty manipulator with a sharp tongue, who has overturned the fine customs of French political life by grazing on the nauseating pastures of Le Pen," it said in a reference to extreme right wing politician and presidential contender Jean-Marie Le Pen.
Sarkozy provoked anger among many Africans earlier this year by promoting tougher controls on immigration and residency, partly in response to riots last year involving large numbers of immigrants or their children.
Algeria and France delayed the signing of a friendship treaty, that was due to be approved at the end of last year, following the passage by France's National Assembly in February 2005 of a law referring to the "positive role of the French presence overseas, especially in North Africa".
French President Jacques Chirac repealed the law but that did not end the row.
Quotidien d'Oran quoted Sarkozy's Algerian counterpart Noureddine Yazid Zerhouni as saying the time was not yet right to conclude a friendship treay with France, and that ties should be deepened by actions on the level of everyday life.
by Lamine Chikhi
Reuters, Algiers