Brussels, 27/06/2005 (Agence Europe) - Benita Ferrero-Waldner, European Commissioner for External Relations, met the Algerian Prime Minister in Algiers on 27 June, and was also due to be received by the Head of State, Abdelaziz Bouteflika. Her visit was centred on the implementation of the association agreement from September this year, notably with the creation of thematic sub-committees. She also announced the EU's support for Algeria'se programme of reforms, which she described as "positive": I will "find the means to help the government to implement them", she said in an interview with the Algerian press agency APS. The Algerian government stresses that its priority task will be to fully implement the provisions of the association agreement before it gets down to any other initiatives. This targets the "neighbourhood" policy, which has caused a certain amount of reluctance on the part of the Algerian authorities, who are refusing, amongst other things, to commit to a politically-conditioned procedure, a kind of "merit-based cooperation", which would make a large proportion of future funding conditional upon progress made in reforms. "It has to be said that with oil and gas income in constant increase, 41 billion dollars of currency reserves and a further 20 billion dollars of reserves in the safes of the public banks, Algeria can afford to say no", a Community source commented. For the time being, Commissioner Ferrero-Waldner said no more in the above-mentioned interview than that: "If Algeria wants to go further" in its cooperation with the EU, then “we are ready too, (…) this is the objective of a neighbourhood policy and its implementation in the context of action plans”. The European Commission has itself avoided saying much more than this to the Algerians, and its publications destined for the country (mainly on the website of its delegation) refer to the neighbourhood policy as basically a more or less long-term prospect. Like the Algerian government, the Commission prefers instead to stress the Barcelona process. According to APS, Ms Ferrero-Weldner also announced that she was to discuss the creation of a joint sub-committee on human rights and democratisation with the Algerian authorities. Furthermore, according to the press, echoing the resolution adopted in early June by the European Parliament condemning attacks on freedom of the press, she announced that she was to discuss this issue with the authorities. The Commissioner added that in the view of the EU, Maghreb's economic integration was of "vital, if not imperative, importance”.