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.