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GV Aircraft taxis into Algiers airport, Algerian and Venezuelan flags flying (2 shots)
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SV Venezuelan President Carlos Andres Perez greeted by Algerian President Houari Boumedienne
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SV Guard of honour
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SV PAN The two Presidents walk past guard of honour (4 shots)
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SV INT The two Presidents seated at news conference
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CU Perez speaks in Spanish and is interpreted into Arabic
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President Perez flew in to Dar-El-Beida airport, Algiers.



He was warmly greeted by Algeria's President Houari Boumedienne. Shortly before leaving for Algeria, President Perez told reports in Vienna that he could not foresee whether a common price for oil within OPEC would be reached at a forthcoming meeting of the organisation in Stockholm.



Eleven of the 13 OPEC nations, including Algeria, agreed on a 10 per cent price rise from the beginning of the year, with a five per cent rise to follow in July. But the other two, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, decided on only a five per cent rise from January and refused to go along with the July increase.



President Perez talked to reporters at the airport about his Middle East tour. Speaking in Spanish, with the aid of an Arabic translator, he told them his visit was aimed at strengthening the links between Venezuela and the oil-producing countries he had been to. His tour took in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Iran, Iraq and the United Arab Emirates. He also said that the Arab countries, and those of Latin America, Asia and Africa, formed a strong front determined to realise economic independence. Two days earlier, at another news conference, he had said that the states of the Third World were struggling strongly to liberate themselves -- but this did not mean that they wanted, or were working for, a confrontation with the greater powers.




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Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: President Carlos Andres Perez of oil-rich Venezuela stopped briefly in Algeria on Wednesday, (4 May) after a tour of six Arab oil-producing states, all members of OPEC, the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries.