Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika arrived in Tehran on Sunday with five cabinet members and a political-economic delegation for a three-day visit, official IRNA news agency said. Bouteflika, who last visited the Islamic republic in 2003, is expected to meet with Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and parliament speaker Ali Larijani.
Iranian media have reported that he is accompanied by his foreign, energy, higher education, housing and health ministers.
According to the governmental Iran newspaper quoting Iran's ambassador to Algiers, Hossein Abdi Abyaneh, the two sides are going to ink agreements on customs co-operation and avoiding double taxation.
Bouteflika agreed to restore relations with Iran in 2000 on the sidelines of a UN summit during a meeting with Iran's reformist President Mohammad Khatami. Algiers broke off relations with Tehran in 1993 over alleged Iranian support for the Islamic Salvation Front, an Islamist group that took up arms against the Algerian state after it was denied its 1991 election win. Khatami visited Algeria in 2004 and his successor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad visited the north African Arab nation in August 2007.
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