US team in Algeria for defence consultations

A US delegation led by senior diplomat Mark Ryan is in Algiers to discuss the "risks of the proliferation of weapons of all types" as an outcome of the Libyan conflict, the US embassy announced Monday. Adam, a senior advisor in the office of political and military affairs in the State Department, arrived in Algiers on Sunday for talks that were due to last until Tuesday, the statement said. The US official met an advisor to President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, Kamel Rezag Bara, who is the main interlocuteur of US officials in a budding relationship between Algiers and Washington. The two sides exchanged views and information about the sensitive matter of the circulation of arms, the proliferation of specialist weapons in the north African region, and the risk of them falling into the hands of terrorists like Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), the statement said. AQIM, which originated in Algeria in 2007 when the now defunct Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat affiliated itself with Al-Qaeda, operates mainly in the western Sahara -- Algeria, Mali, Mauritania and Niger. European diplomats believe that AQIM has been strengthened by the Libyan conflict and may have established rear bases in Libya. Adam's visit to Algiers follows one on January 17 by President Barack Obama's internal security and anti-terrorist advisor John Brennan, another on March 3 and 4 by the coordinator of the anti-terrorist struggle in the State Department, Daniel Benjamin, and a third in the first days of July by the head of the US Africa Command (AFRICOM), General Carter Ham.