In Brief:France urges talks on Algeria

Paris - France proposed yesterday that the European Union host a conference on Algeria, based in part on a peace platform agreed by secular and Islamic opposition parties last month but rejected by the country's military rulers.

President Francois Mitterrand said he and Chancellor Helmut Kohl of Germany had agreed the EU should continue to give economic aid to Algeria without taking sides in the conflict between the government and Muslim fundamentalists. Reuter