In Algeria, large number of special forces have been sent to the eastern region of Jijel - a hotbed of Islamic militancy - ahead of the expiry tomorrow Thursday of a government's offer of an amnesty for Islamic rebels.

President Bouteflika has promised a merciless war against rebels who refused to surrender.

Yesterday he announced a blanket amnesty for one of the groups, the Islamic Salvation Army, in the latest stage of his efforts to end the eight-year-old insurgency.

Within hours, the head of the group Madani Merzag said it had been completely dissolved.

But two more powerful groups the Armed Islamic Group or GIA and the Salafist Group for Combat and Conversion have vowed to continue their struggle for an Islamic state.

A correspondent for the BBC in Algiers says that a previously announced partial amnesty has had disappointing results, with only fifteen hundred or so out of several thousand fighters taking it up, mainly the old and sick.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service