Algeria, UK ministers discuss cooperation with NTC over exiled Kaddafi family

Algiers- Algeria should cooperate with the new regime in Libya over members of Kaddafi family who took refuge there, British Foreign Secretary William Hague told reporters in a joint press conference with the Algerian FM Mourad Medelci here on Wednesday.

Asked about leader’s daughter Aisha, who fled to Algeria late in August with her brother Hannibal, their mother Safya (Gaddafi’s second wife) and his son Mohamed, Hague said; “We think that Algeria should work with the Libyan authorities on any requests they will make about people who have come into the country.

Hague added he had made the same point in very country he had visited on his regional; “I have also made a request in all countries I visited in the region”.

“It was important to work with both the National Transitional Council, Libya’s interim authority, and the Hague-based court to ensure that anyone wanted by the courts was brought to justice”, Hague asserted.

“We took them in for humanitarian reasons; President Abdel Jalil acknowledges we were within our rights to do so”, Mourad Medelci explained.

“We have informal ties with NTC, which today have become official. Abdel Jalil had received Algeria’s ambassador to Tripoli on Tuesday and they had had constructive talks”, he added.

Asked about terrorism, Hague said Algeria and Britain had worked particularly closely in this area.

On his arrival in Algiers on Tuesday, Hague said; “We will continue to support Algeria in its fight against Al Qaeda and to encourage a regional approach to this common threat”.

Hague’s visit to Algeria is the final stop in a North African tour that has already taken in Libya and Mauritania.