Islamic leader held in Algiers

The Islamic Salvation Front in Algeria the FISsays that one of its top leaders has been arrested after giving a series of interviews to European newspapers.

The man, Abdelkader Hachani, is said to be number three in the FIS leadership.

In his interviews, Mr Hachani proposed a conference of national reconciliation, without foreign intermediaries, followed by a commission of inquiry into the violence which has claimed about eighty-thousand lives in the past five years.

Mr Hachani was freed from prison last July after serving a five-year sentence for his activities on behalf of the FIS, which is banned by the authorities.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service