Algeria's president on Monday endorsed the US war on terrorism but said the West must seek to address the causes of discontent in the Muslim world, including poverty and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Speaking after half an hour of Oval Office talks with US President George W. Bush, Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika alluded to his nation's decade-long battle against Muslim militants in which 100,000 people have died.
"Algeria understands perhaps better than most the pain of the families of Sept. 11's victims," Bouteflika told reporters after his second meeting with Bush this year as Washington has reached out to Algiers after years of keeping its distance.
"[Algeria] ... plans to fully meet its obligations and its responsibilities in the international fight against terrorism," he said, saying his country understood the need "because of the battle that it has fought alone during a tragic decade amid the indifference of some and the ingratitude of others."
Bush met Bouteflika at the start of a week in which he is seeking to shore up backing for the war on terrorism that he declared after the Sept. 11 attacks on the US.
US National Security Council spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters the meeting covered the war on terrorism as well as trade and investment, saying Bush thanked Bouteflika "for his support in the fight against terrorism and noted that Algeria had suffered greatly at the hands of terrorists."
There are signs that support for the US bombardment of Afghanistan is ebbing in the Muslim world, with several leaders decrying civilian casualties and calling for a pause during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, which begins around Nov. 17.
Bouteflika said the West must look at some of the underlying causes of discontent in the Muslim world, including the Israeli-Palestinian dispute and widespread poverty.
"No one doubts this international effort against terrorism will gain cohesion and efficiency if it includes [an effort] to settle problems and injustices which fanaticism exploits to feed the despair that nurtures terrorism," he said.
"We should all work together to correct the flagrant injustices of the world today, which globalization only exacerbates," he added.
"In this same vein, a comprehensive, just and lasting solution to the Middle East conflict, including satisfying the inalienable international rights of the Palestinian people for the creation of their own state ... is more important than ever to the health of the international environment," he said.
Bush last met Bouteflika on July 12, when he urged the leader of the North African country to pursue economic and political reforms. That meeting marked the first official visit to Washington by an Algerian head of state in 16 years.
Muslim militants launched a violent campaign against Algeria's government after the Algerian military intervened in 1992 to scrap a general election which Islamists had been on the verge of winning.
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