President Abdelaziz Bouteflika of Algeria

Ahmed Bouteflika was married to two women: Belkaïd Rabia and Ghezlaoui Mansouriah (the mother of the current President.

Abdelaziz Bouteflika was born on March 2, 1937 (seventy-one years of age) in Oujda, Morocco, he was the first child of his mother and the second child of his father (Fatima, his half-sister, preceded him.

Bouteflika has three half-sisters (Fatima, Yamina, and Aïcha), as well as four brothers (Abdelghani, Mustapha, Abderahim and Saïd) and one sister (Latifa.

Abdelaziz Bouteflika has been married since August 1990 and has no children.

Bouteflika lived and studied in Algeria until he joined the Front de Libération Nationale (FLN) in 1956, at the age of 19.

Bouteflika was considered very close to Boumédiène; Ben Bella's attempt to dismiss Bouteflika in 1965 is considered the triggering factor in Boumédiène's coup d'état some time later.

On Bomédiènne's unexpected death in 1978, Bouteflika was seen as one of the two main candidates to succeed the powerful president.

Bouteflika was thought to represent the party's "right wing" that was more open to economic reform and rapprochement with the West.

Bouteflika was reassigned the role of Minister of State, but successively lost power as Bendjedid's policies of "de-Boumédiènisation" marginalized the old guard.

In 1981, Bouteflika was sued for having stolen Algerian embassies' money between 1965 and 1979.

In his defence, Bouteflika said that he "reserved" that money to build a new building for the foreign affairs ministry, but the court judged his argument to be "fallacious.

In 1979, just after the death of Boumédiène, Bouteflika had reimbursed 12 212 875,81 out of the 70 millions that was put in a Swiss bank.

Although Bouteflika was granted amnesty by the president Chadli Bendjedid, his colleagues Senouci and Boudjakdji were jailed.

Bouteflika was also active on the international scene, presiding over what many have characterized as Algeria's return to international affairs, after almost a decade of international isolation.

Bouteflika has kept the amnesty option open– apparently open-ended despite the end of the deadline stipulated by the reconciliation law– while simultaneously pursuing the rebel group militarily.

However, Bouteflika has since stepped back from this position, supporting amendments to the hydrocarbon law in 2006, which propose watering down some of the clauses of the 2005 legislation relating to the role of SONATRACH, the state owned oil gas company, in new developments.

Bouteflika has also put up for sale 1300 public sector companies, and has already achieved privatization of about 150 of them, mainly in the tourism, food processing, cement, construction material and chemical industries.

Rumors of the two countries negotiating a form of cartel for natural gas, similar to OPEC's role in oil affairs, with Iran and Qatar also involved, have appeared repeatedly, and Bouteflika has confirmed an interest in the idea.

Bouteflika has also carefully cultivated a relationship with China, with exchanges of state visits between the two countries.

All in all, Algeria's foreign policy under Bouteflika remains hinged on same axis as under earlier governments, emphasizing South-South ties, especially with growing Third World powers (China, South Africa, Brazil, etc) and guarding the country's independence in decision-making visavi the West, although simultaneously striving for good trade relations and unconfrontational political relations with the EU and USA.

Bouteflika was admitted to a hospital in France on 26 November 2005, reportedly suffering from a gastric ulcer hemorrhage, and discharged three weeks later.

Bouteflika was an piece of the image of the optimistic and dynamic Algeria that rose after the Algerian War.

Bouteflika has always had great support from the administrative elite and the higher classes in the cities.

1962: With the birth of Muslim independent Algeria, Bouteflika is appointed Minister of Youth, Sport and Tourism.

2004 April 8: Bouteflika is reelected in presidential elections, winning 83.

Abdelaziz Bouteflika's victory in the Algerian presidential elections is a remarkable achievement for a man who spent nearly two decades in the political wilderness.

The time for profound change has arrived, Algerian President Abdel-Aziz Bouteflika said on Saturday in his first 90-minute address to the nation since taking office on 27 April.

I am ready to welcome those who want to return to their nation, Bouteflika said in his live TV broadcast, and to take all necessary measures to this effect.

Observers have been particularly alarmed by the attacks in the capital since Bouteflika took office which were carried out by suspected militants.

Bouteflika has the backing of army generals, an array of former government officials and businessmen with strong links to the government -- a difficult constituency to ignore.

After more than a week of deadly street fighting in Algeria, President Abdel-Aziz Bouteflika said on Monday that an investigation would be opened into the bloody clashes between security forces and ethnic Berbers that have left at least 60 dead.

A national commission of inquiry will be created to investigate the events of the last few days, Bouteflika said during his 15-minute speech, without specifying when the inquiry would begin.

Algeria PoliticsBouteflika to announce candidacy in Algerian pollAlgerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflikaafrol News, 20 February - Incumbent Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika is soon to announce that he will be running for a second five-year term in the 8 April presidential poll, according to Algerian press reports.

Mr Bouteflika is however facing a strong contest in ex-Prime Minister Ali Benflis, who won majority support from the ruling party.

President Bouteflika has however begun to strike back.

The FLN election process is being contested in court and Mr Bouteflika has gained the backing of his candidacy by two parties and a dissident faction of the FLN.

During the last month, President Bouteflika has travelled around all of Algeria, passing through most prefectures, to present the national budget and his political visions.

But President Bouteflika has also noted severe setbacks during the last weeks, as he increasingly has been characterised as undemocratic and too close to the military in the Algerian public.

At the same time, "appointing Ouyahia to lead the government team means that Bouteflika is trying to strengthen his side ahead of political steps such as the constitution revision and next presidential elections," said analyst and political science professor Ismail Maaref Ghalia.

Bouteflika is pragmatic and knows how to avoid obstacles," he added.

Born in Morocco, Abdelaziz Bouteflika was educated in his native Oujda and then at Tlemcen, Algeria.

Furthermore, Bouteflika has aspired to exercise independence, although detractors have portrayed him as a puppet of the Pouvoir.

When Abdelaziz Bouteflika was elected Algeria's president in April 1999, many people persuaded themselves that all would be well, or at least better.

Algeria - Abdelaziz Bouteflika and the Government ("The Power")Ex-president Liamine Zeroual's former foreign minister Abdelaziz Bouteflika is calling the shots these days, by default.

Bouteflika was re-elected in the first round of the election with 84.

In the years since Bouteflika was first elected, the security situation in Algeria has improved markedly.

When Abdelaziz Bouteflika was elected Algeria's president.

According to one analyst, Mr Bouteflika has become isolated, and.

being elected in April 1999, President Bouteflika has moved quite fast in implementing.

one-man poll on April 15, 1999, to succeed Gen.

term on April 8, 2004, with a crushing 84.

Bouteflika was elected for the first time in 1999, then reelected in 2004 but he never said anything about the possibility to run again in April 2009.

President Bouteflika is stability by default.

04-04-01 German leaders urged Algeria to push on with economic reforms, holding out the prospect of new investment and an end to what the president of the troubled North African state called an "unspoken embargo.

Abdelaziz Bouteflika met with German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer and business chiefs during the second day of a visit billed as the first to Germany by an Algerian head of state.

Bouteflika was to fly to Moscow later Tuesday for an official visit.

In 1979 he became an adviser to President Chadli Benjedid, but Bouteflika was dismissed in 1980 and spent much of the next two decades in exile.

One year after taking over in strife-torn Algeria, President Abdelaziz Bouteflika is still struggling to curb the violence tearing the country apart – yet he remains popular with a majority of Algerians.

Introducing a civil reconciliation program, Bouteflika had more than 15,000 alleged fundamentalist sympathizers released.

El Watan, which did not say when the poll was conducted, said in a commentary, Bouteflika was only reaping the results of his predecessor Liamine Zeroual's policy.

Bouteflika has no role in improving the security situation.

Several spectacular and bloody suicide attacks have been perpetrated by al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb in Algeria in recent weeks.

Abandoning the aloofness and arrogance that he showed five years ago when his election was all but assured - he even called Berbers "dwarfs" in 1999 - Bouteflika has turned on the charm, often showing an affectionate side that rankles his critics.

Born March 2, 1937, in Oujda, Morocco, of Algerian parents, Bouteflika joined the National Liberation Army in 1956 to help fight the war for independence begun two years earlier.

Search for Abdelaziz Bouteflika took 0.

Bouteflika was an important part of the image of the optimistic and dynamic Algeria that rose after the 8 year long fight against France.

Bouteflika is considered to be moderate in his politics, with a political orientation that lies in the middle between socialism and capitalism.

1962: With the arrival of independent Algeria, Bouteflika is appointed minister of youth, sport and tourism.

1963: Bouteflika is appointed foreign minister, at the age of 26.

Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has pardoned a Dutch drug trafficker serving a 20-year sentence to mark the Muslim feast of Eid al-Adha, a Dutch diplomat in Algiers said on Wednesday.

of the General Assembly since 1963.

DAMASCUS, Syria, Oct 18 (UPI) -- Algerian Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia, on an official visit to Damascus, has signed a series of agreements for economic cooperation with Syria.

24 (UPI) -- Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika is playing coy about his intentions of running for an unprecedented third term as the country's leader, observers say.

Earlier, in a statement to the official Algerian news agency APS, Bouteflika said that "foreign policy is reserved for the president of the republic and his representatives, in particular the foreign minister.

Algerian President abdelaziz bouteflika is unde.