Megawati ends visit to Algeria

Megawati ends visit to Algeria

Indonesian President Megawati Soekarnoputri left Algiers on Sunday at the end of a four-day visit during which a bilateral oil deal was clinched, officials said.

Megawati's Algerian counterpart Abdelaziz Bouteflika saw her off at the airport after the pair met for a third time earlier Sunday.

Her visit, the first by an Indonesian head of state to the north African country, saw the signing of a partnership agreement between the two countries' state oil firms, Sonatrach and Pertamina, to be followed soon by a one-year renewable contract under which Algeria will sell 900,000 barrels of oil per month to Indonesia.

Indonesia has up to now bought Algerian oil on the international market.

The two countries' foreign ministers also signed a cooperation agreement, and, at a dinner Thursday in Megawati's honor, Bouteflika urged closer cooperation against terrorism.

"The intensification of the fight against terrorism ... must not open the door to adventurism nor create an amalgam between the crimes of terrorist groups and Islam, a religion of peace, equality, tolerance and respect for human dignity," he said.

Indonesia has the world's largest Muslim population. -- AFP