The contracts include billion-dollar investments in the Algerian oil and gas business by the French energy companies Total and Gaz de France.

France is already the biggest investor in Algeria outside the energy sector.

But it is a controversial visit, given Mr Sarkozy's refusal to apologise for the deaths of thousands of Algerians during French colonial rule.

Deep anger

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The BBC's Christian Fraser in Paris says when it comes to business Algeria and France have a number of mutual interests.

But there is still deep anger left over from years of colonial rule that makes this an uneasy and complex relationship, our correspondent says.

Many in the Algerian leadership spent their youth in the revolutionary struggle; and some say a relationship of equals is not possible until France accepts its past, he says.

The war, which started in 1954, cost hundreds of thousands of Algerian and French lives before independence was finally granted in 1962.

Mr Sarkozy has defended his refusal to apologise, telling Algeria's leaders they should focus on the future and not "beat their breasts".

"We must not ignore [the past] but come to terms with it," Mr Sarkozy said in an interview this weekend, the AP news agency reports.

"That will require a bit more time for both of us, because there are wounds on both sides that have not yet healed."

(BBC)

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