Algerian Foreign Minister Youcef Yousfi plans to visit Tokyo at the end of this month, a trip that will mark the end of decades of near-estrangement between Japan and the North African country.

Government sources on Monday said that Yousfi, the highest-level Algerian official to visit Japan since Algeria won independence from France in 1962, will meet with Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, Foreign Minister Yohei Kono and other Japanese leaders.

No Japanese Cabinet minister has visited Algeria — rich in oil and gas — since January 1982, when the late Michio Watanabe went there as finance minister, the sources said.

The sources said the Algerian foreign minister will stay for a few days at the invitation of the Japanese government, although the dates for the trip have not been set.

The invitation to Yousfi reflects Japan's desire to strengthen relations with the country of some 30 million people to ensure energy security in the medium and long terms. Japan, which imports almost all of the oil it consumes, presently imports only small amounts from Algeria.

More than 100,000 Algerians have been killed in a civil war that erupted nearly eight years ago when the army canceled national elections that the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS), a Muslim fundamentalist party, was set to win.

Overall security has improved since Abdelaziz Bouteflika was elected president in April 1999, but sporadic acts

of terrorism continue to beset the country, especially in rural areas.

President Bouteflika has pledged to bring "civil concord" to his country, and as part of efforts to achieve that goal, his army-backed regime offered limited amnesty to Islamic militants in July. His peace plan was widely approved in a national referendum in September.

But critics of the regime insist that Bouteflika's policies have been insufficient for achieving national reconciliation. The continued violence has also hampered Bouteflika's efforts to improve Algeria's international image and attract badly needed foreign investment.

Despite its vast oil and gas resources, Algeria is saddled with some $30 billion in foreign debt and an unemployment rate of about 30 percent.

To reconstruct its battered economy, the country is trying to restructure inefficient state-run companies, promote free-market reforms and attract more foreign investment.

In Tokyo, Yousfi is expected to seek increased official Japanese economic aid and private sector investment to help rebuild the ailing Algerian economy.

Japan, the world's largest single aid donor, has provided small amounts of official development assistance to Algeria in the form of grant-in-aid or technical cooperation. But official yen loans have been suspended for many years due to the civil war.

Yousfi, whose country currently holds the one-year presidency of the 52-nation Organization of African Unity, is also expected to discuss conflicts and debt problems on the African Continent during his talks in Tokyo.

Regional conflicts, debts and poverty, especially on the African Continent, are expected to be high on the agenda at the annual summit of the Group of Eight major countries in Okinawa Prefecture in July. The G8 comprises the United States, Canada, Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Russia and Japan.