1 In news that could escalate tensions in Algeria, the country's foreign minister said Thursday that the president of the outlawed Islamic fundamentalist movement had been hospitalized.
2 Foreign Minister Mohamed Salah Dembri said 65-year-old Abassi Madani had been moved from the villa where he was under house arrest and was now receiving medical care.
3 He refused to say whether Madani was seriously ill but pointed out that rumors about his near death had been circulated in the past to whip up opposition to the government.
4 Dembri said Ali Belhadj, vice-president of the banned Islamic Salvation Front, FIS, had been separated from Madani and moved to another 'residence.'
5 The London-based Arabic newspaper, Ash-Sharq Al-Awsat, broke the news of the two FIS leaders, and said Madani was visited by his son in the hospital Sunday.
6 The two had been kept together under house arrest since Sept. 13, when the government released them from a military jail in an effort to increase contacts with the Salvation Front and end a three-year-old insurgency which has cost an estimated 30,000 lives.
7 The informal talks, however, appear to have broken down. News of Madani's ill health may further aggravate the situation and increase the anger of the fundamentalists, who have vowed to step up their campaign against the military-backed government.
8 Dembri was in Geneva to address the annual session of the U.N. Human Rights Commission. Algeria, although criticized by Western governments for its violations, is one of the three vice-presidents of the U.N. watchdog this year.
9 At a news conference, Dembri outlined government plans to invite international observers to presidential elections promised before the end of the year by incumbent President Liamine Zeroual. He said parliamentary and local elections would take place in 1996.
10 'It will be a very open election,' Dembri insisted.
11 However, he reiterated that FIS candidates would not be eligible to take part because the front is not a legal party.
12 The military-backed government canceled a runoff parliamentary election the Salvation Front was expected to win in January 1992 and banned the party.
13 The Salvation Front and opposition groups that met in Rome last month have rejected the election and instead called for talks with the government, the release of political prisoners and a lifting of tough emergency measures.
14 Dembri said the government had no plans to change course. He renewed the government's criticism of French President Francois Mitterrand for suggesting that a European conference could help solve Algeria's crisis.
15 'It is Algeria's internal affair,' he said. 'Terrorism in Algeria doesn't differ from that in Europe. There is a constitutional right which allows the state to uphold security and protect the unity of the nation.'
16 In some of the latest violence, an armed group killed four people, including the acting mayor of the city of Sidi Khelif in eastern Algeria, the government daily El Moudjahid reported Thursday.
17 The paper did not give the date of the attack or elaborate on the attackers. But about 10 other acting mayors installed by the government to replace fundamentalist officials have been assassinated since May 1993.

The London - based Arabic newspaper , Ash - Sharq Al - Awsat , broke the news of the two FIS leaders , and said Madani was visited by his son in the hospital Sunday .
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