French-Algerian treaty talks flounder

France and Algeria remain deadlocked over the formulation of a friendship treaty between the countries, the Algerian foreign minister said on Monday.
The negotiations have been complicated by France's colonial past and were thrown off course last year by a bill in the French parliament that said school curricula should recognise "the positive role of France's presence overseas, notably in north Africa".
"There are still difficulties, it needs to be recognised," said Algerian Foreign Minister Mohamed Bedjaoui on Monday after a meeting with French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy.
The bill recognising France's "positive role" was eventually withdrawn at the initiative of French President Chirac, but caused a row in Algeria and re-ignited debate about the impact of France's rule in the North African country of more than a century.
"It (the bill) showed that French public opinion was perhaps not ready," said Bedjaoui, who stressed the importance of "preparing opinion on both sides of the Mediterranean for this treaty".
He said the controversial law had cost both sides a year of preparation time for the treaty. The friendship treaty is part of an attempt to create an "exceptional partnership" between the countries, a plan announced by French President Jacques Chirac and his Algerian counterpart Abdelaziz Bouteflikain in March 2003.
"It is not a banal treaty that we want. It is a treaty to redefine the whole structure of relations between our two countries, between our two people, which will enable us to finally turn a page and open another," said Bedjaoui.
Bedjaoui referred to the declaration of Chirac and Bouteflikain in 2003 which had called for "re-enforcing political, economic, cultural and scientific co-operation".
French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy, who also met President Bouteflikain on Monday, said: "Algeria and France have a real need to be reunited."
He said that there was a "genuine willingness from the French people to be friends and linked with Algeria", adding that "20 to 25 percent of French people have a direct or indirect relationship with Algeria".
French rule in Algeria lasted for more than a century. After fighting throughout much of the 1950s, Algeria gained independence in 1962.
"The time has come to look towards the future without forgetting the past," said Douste-Blazy.