SIRTE, Tripoli (Reuters) – Libya’s relations with the European Union have returned to normal after a row over visas was settled but a dispute with Switzerland remains unresolved, Libya’s foreign minister said on Sunday.

The visa crisis, which had threatened growing business ties between the EU and oil exporter Libya, was defused on Saturday after the bloc scrapped a travel black-list Switzerland had imposed on senior Libyans, and expressed its regrets.

ALGIERS (Reuters) – All options are open at the next meeting of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in March, Algerian Energy and Mines Minister Chakib Khelil said on Sunday.

Energy ministers from OPEC, whose 12 members pump more than a third of the world’s oil, meet in Vienna on March 17 to decide whether to change production levels for crude or leave them as they are.

ALGIERS, Feb 14 (Reuters) – All options are open at the next
meeting of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries
(OPEC) in March, Algerian Energy and Mines Minister Chakib
Khelil said on Sunday.

Energy ministers from OPEC, whose 12 members pump more than
a third of the world’s oil, meet in Vienna on March 17 to decide
whether to change production levels for crude or leave them as
they are.

ALGIERS, Jan 31 (Reuters) – Airline security measures introduced by Washington after a failed attempt to blow up a flight on Christmas Day risk backfiring because they have angered important U.S. partners in the fight against al Qaeda.

Saudi Arabia, Algeria and Nigeria have voiced their displeasure at their inclusion on a 14-strong list of countries where passengers departing for the United States are to be subject to especially rigorous pre-flight screening.

None of them have said publicly they will scale back security cooperation with the United States in response, but relations have been left frayed and Washington was worried enough to assign a senior diplomat to try to repair the damage.

"The United States is behaving like a bull in a china shop," said Mohamed Lagab, an Algerian lecturer in political science who has close ties to his country’s government.

Washington announced the new security measures soon after Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a Nigerian man described by U.S. officials as an al Qaeda operative, tried unsuccessfully to detonate explosives hidden in his underwear on a Dec. 25 flight as it approached the U.S. city of Detroit.

The 14 countries on Washington’s list are Cuba, Iran, Syria, Sudan, Afghanistan, Algeria, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia and Yemen.



"BLACKLIST"

Several independent analysts have said the list does little to plug the security gaps exposed by the bomb attempt. Meanwhile for some U.S. allies, inclusion on what they perceive as a terrorism blacklist has been a shock and an insult.

Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Ministry has sent a request to the U.S. State Department to clarify the move, Western diplomats and a Saudi security source said. A Saudi Foreign Ministry spokesman could not be reached for comment.

The world’s largest petroleum exporter, Saudi Arabia has almost entirely stamped out a wave of domestic al Qaeda violence that began six years ago.

"This is probably the first measure by the Obama administration in its global campaign against terrorism. It is a very disappointing measure for us, because what we were expecting was a deeper and more efficient cooperation," the Saudi security source said.

In Nigeria, Information Minister Dora Akunyili said her country’s inclusion was "unfair". She warned that bilateral relations between Nigeria and the United States, purchaser of 45 percent of its oil exports, could be at risk.

In Algeria, Foreign Minister Mourad Medelci summoned the U.S. ambassador and said Algeria’s inclusion in the list was "unfortunate, unjustified and discriminatory."

There was also grass-roots anger in Algeria, a North African oil and gas producer where security forces have made progress in clamping down on an al Qaeda-linked insurgency.

"I don’t think we deserve this," said Farouk Guettouche, a 44-year-old unemployed man. "We’re not Afghanistan."



SECURITY INTERESTS

U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Janet Sanderson flew to Algiers last week for what she said afterwards were "frank" talks focusing on the security list. She said she was also having consultations on the issue with other U.S. allies.

"Let me assure you that my government has heard you," she told reporters in Algiers. "What we are trying to do is to create a system that responds to the ever-changing conditions that the terrorists seem to be able to exploit."

Washington is anxious not to hurt diplomatic ties because important security cooperation is at stake, especially with Saudi Arabia and Algeria, two countries in the front line of the battle against al Qaeda.

The United States is relying on Saudi assistance to help prevent al Qaeda expanding its foothold in neighbouring Yemen — the focus of intense U.S. attention after the Yemeni arm of Osama bin Laden’s network claimed responsibility for the Christmas Day bomb plot.

Turki al-Sahil, who covers diplomatic and security issues at Saudi Arabia’s Asharq al-Awsat newspaper, said security cooperation with Washington would bounce back. "Saudi Arabia and U.S. strategic interests are bigger than this," he said.

Security ties with Algeria are less robust. The United States needs its help to contain the spread of al Qaeda in the vast and poorly policed Sahara desert, but Algeria’s government is ambivalent about a growing U.S. role in the region.

"The Americans’ interests and their security are at stake," Algeria’s Liberte newspaper wrote about the list. "They should remedy their mistake and by doing so encourage Algeria to continue its implacable fight against terrorism." (Additional reporting by Souhail Karam in Riyadh and Nick Tattersall in Lagos; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)

ALGIERS (Reuters) – Airline security measures introduced by Washington after a failed attempt to blow up a flight on Christmas Day risk backfiring because they have angered important U.S. partners in the fight against al Qaeda.

Saudi Arabia, Algeria and Nigeria have voiced their displeasure at their inclusion on a 14-strong list of countries where passengers departing for the United States are to be subject to especially rigorous pre-flight screening.

ALGIERS (Reuters) – Extra airline security checks introduced after the failed Christmas Day bomb plot are still evolving, a senior U.S. official said on Sunday after some states alleged the screening singled them out unfairly.

U.S. President Barack Obama ordered extra pre-flight screening for air travelers flying to the United States from 14 countries. One of those states, close Washington ally Algeria, has called its inclusion discriminatory.

TUNIS (Reuters) – Rich nations at the Copenhagen climate summit should commit $40 billion a year in new money to help Africa tackle the consequences of global warming, the president of the African Development Bank (AfDB) said on Monday.

Donald Kaberuka said he wanted to see a “willingess by rich countries to dig into their pockets to enable low-income countries to adapt to climate change.”

ALGIERS, Nov 25 (Reuters) – Campaign group Human Rights
Watch said on Wednesday it had for the first time been given
permission to launch a report on Libya’s rights record from
inside the country, a step it said showed a new openness.

Libya was for decades off-limits to any foreigners trying to
scrutinise the rule of its leader, Muammar Gaddafi, but in the
past few years there has been a limited opening up led by
Gaddafi’s reform-minded son.

ALGIERS, Nov 19 (Reuters) – Algerians’ outpouring of joy at
qualifying for the World Cup finals late on Wednesday was more
than about football: for them the victory symbolises their
country’s emergence from almost two decades of conflict.

The last time Algeria reached the World Cup finals was in
1986, shortly before a wave of social unrest that ultimately led
to fighting between Islamist rebels and government forces in
which thousands of people were killed.

ALGIERS, Nov 19 (Reuters) – Algerians’ outpouring of joy at qualifying for the World Cup finals late on Wednesday was more than about football: for them the victory symbolises their country’s emergence from almost two decades of conflict.

The last time Algeria reached the World Cup finals was in 1986, shortly before a wave of social unrest that ultimately led to fighting between Islamist rebels and government forces in which thousands of people were killed.

Nearly a quarter of a century later, the violence — known in Algeria as "the black years" — has declined, with now only occasional attacks by a rump of militants operating as the North African wing of al Qaeda.

Many in the crowds which poured into the streets of Algiers after Wednesday night’s 1-0 qualification win over Egypt saw a link between events on the football pitch and Algeria’s return to a degree of normality.

"I feel great … All those years that we had to live through, it’s as if they have just evaporated," said one supporter, Yusef Ounanou, who was dancing in a road with a national flag wrapped around him.

There are practical ways in which Algeria’s relative stability has helped its performance on the football field.

During the "black years", many of Algeria’s matches had to be played in Annaba, about 500 km (300 miles) east of Algiers, because the capital was considered too dangerous.

Home games are now played near the capital and will soon return to a refurbished national stadium in Algiers.

Improved security may have influenced several players in the side with dual nationality to turn down the option of playing for France and choose Algeria instead.



NATIONAL PRIDE

More significant though for Algerians is the symbolism of the football team’s success. The Soir d’Algerie newspaper’s front page headline on Thursday read: "We did it!"

"Algeria is not terrorism, illegal emigration and social misery," said the newspaper’s editorial. "It is a country which can finally haul itself up among the ranks of the great nations of the world."

Algeria is obsessed with football. Its favourite son is Zinedine Zidane, former captain of the French national team whose parents are of Algerian descent.

But the frenzy surrounding the final qualifying tie with Egypt was unusual in its intensity.

Days before the game, groups of fans clambered on to the roofs of buses, train drivers decorated their locomotives with the national flag and thousands of people mobbed an airline office seeking free tickets to travel to the match.

That passion spilled over into violence when fans, angry at reports that travelling supporters had been mistreated at a previous match in Egypt, ransacked the headquarters of a subsidiary of Egypt’s Orascom Telecom <ORTE.CA> <ORTEq.L>.



RETURN OF OPTIMISM

Nacer Jabi, a sociologist at Algiers University, said success on the football pitch allowed disillusioned young people to re-connect with their national identity in a way not seen since the country obtained independence from France in 1962.

"The Algerian people have become very pessimistic. They only see things in black, even the good things," he said. "This victory over Egypt is also a victory over that situation."

World Cup qualification is likely to give a breathing space to Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who is facing social unrest over unemployment, high food prices and cramped housing conditions.

Teachers’ unions are in the second week of a strike over pay, and last month residents of an Algiers slum demanding they be re-housed threw petrol bombs and stones at riot police.

"For a brief time, in the moment of victory and euphoria, the people will forget their problems," said Jabi.

Some of the supporters watching live pictures from Wednesday’s match in a cafe in Algiers chanted "Bouteflika! Bouteflika!" — rare acclaim in a country where many people are deeply sceptical about their political leaders. (Editing by Giles Elgood)