US seeks to boost Algeria counter-terror link

ALGERIA, July 9 (Reuters) The United States wants greater counter-terror cooperation with Algeria, an aide to President George W Bush said after talks today with President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, the official APS news agency reported.

Frances Townsend, homeland security adviser to Bush, handed Bouteflika a message from Bush in the meeting, which covered questions including ''the threat of terrorism worldwide and particularly in the Maghreb'', APS reported her as saying.

Townsend did not disclose details of the message but added in remarks to APS that Washington greatly appreciated Algerian counter-terrorism cooperation and the United States wanted to be able to reinforce this.

Townsend, who met Foreign Minister Mourad Medelci yesterday, also held talks with Bouteflika in a visit to Algeria last year.

The two countries began exchanging intelligence on Islamist armed groups after the September 11 attacks in New York.

Washington's security ties with Algiers are now among the closest of any foreign country, diplomats say.

Maghreb states also stepped up security cooperation among themselves after a series of bombings and arrests of militants across north Africa in late 2006 and early 2007.

Security officials in the region say Islamist militants have sought for months to strengthen a network of supporters locally and among communities of north African descent in Europe.

Up to 200,000 people have been killed in political bloodshed in Algeria since 1992, when supporters of a now-outlawed Muslim fundamentalist party that was poised to win elections that year subsequently launched an armed rebellion against the state.

The violence has subsided in recent years amid successive government offers of amnesty to the rebels, but sputters on mainly in countryside east of Algiers.

An al-Qaeda-aligned group previously known as the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat claimed responsibility for triple suicide bombings that killed 33 on April 11 in Algiers.

REUTERS SBC VV2100