Sahara states say agree joint action against Qaeda

By Lamine Chikhi

ALGIERS (Reuters) - Sahara desert states struggling to contain a growing threat from al Qaeda agreed on Tuesday to put aside their differences and hammer out practical ways to fight the insurgents, an Algerian official said.

Western countries say that unless the region's fractious governments join forces to fight the insurgents, al Qaeda could turn the Sahara desert into a safe haven along the lines of Yemen and Somalia and use it to launch large-scale attacks.

In a move praised in a U.S. State Department statement as a step towards collectively confronting al Qaeda, Algeria hosted foreign and defence ministers from Burkina Faso, Chad, Libya, Mali, Mauritania and Niger for the first conference of its kind.

"We have reached a full consensus to tackle terrorism in the region," Abdelkader Messahel, Algeria's Minister Delegate for African and Maghreb Affairs, told reporters after a day of talks behind closed doors in a hotel on the outskirts of Algiers.

"A strategy of action is our choice," he said. "We will go for action and one step is a meeting between military and anti-terror specialists of the region in Algiers in April."

That meeting, which Messahel said would be at the level of military chiefs of staff, held out the prospect that Sahara region states would start sharing operational information and cooperating their actions on the ground.

That is a step Western governments say is essential to containing al Qaeda in the Sahara, which has attracted the insurgents with its vast expanses and porous borders. But disagreements have hindered cooperation between states.

CONFRONTING THREAT   Continued...