French President Nicolas Sarkozy was heading to Algeria on Monday for a three-day state visit. He and Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika are set to sign a partnership treaty, and Sarkozy is expected to sign energy contracts with natural gas-rich Algeria. The trip will be Sarkozy's first full state visit to Algeria since his May election, though he made a brief stop there in July for a working visit. French presidential spokesman David Martinon said the two countries would sign a 10-year partnership agreement during Sarkozy's visit, referring to it as a «simplified friendship treaty.» «We must not ignore (the past) but come to terms with it,» Sarkozy said in an interview this weekend with Algeria's APS news agency. «That will require a bit more time for both of us, because there are wounds on both sides that have not yet healed.» Sarkozy was accompanied on the trip by 150 business leaders. After a similar trip in October to another North African nation, Morocco, Sarkozy secured ¤3 billion (US$4.4 billion) in new contracts. The president told APS that he hoped to secure natural gas contracts in Algeria to «guarantee France's supply until 2019.» He also said the two planned to sign a nuclear cooperation treaty. New contracts could provide up to 7,000 new jobs in Algeria, he said.
