20100704
reuters

ALGIERS (Reuters) - Egypt's 82-year-old president, Hosni Mubarak, flew to Algeria on Sunday to offer condolences over the death of the Algerian leader's brother, a trip that follows months of tension between the two countries.

Algeria and Egypt had a diplomatic row late last year over ill-tempered qualification for the soccer World Cup, and since then investments in Algeria by Egyptian firms Orascom Telecom

and Ezz Steel have hit problems.

Mubarak, who had gall-bladder surgery in Germany in March, made the journey to pay his respects to Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika over the death of his brother Mustapha, Egypt's state news agency reported.

No information was given on whether Mubarak would have formal talks with the Algerian president during his visit.

The hostilities between Algeria and Egypt broke out last year when the two countries' national soccer teams faced off in qualifying for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

Both sides traded accusations about crowd violence and intimidation and Cairo withdrew its ambassador from Algiers.

At about the same time, Algerian authorities presented Orascom Telecom's profitable local mobile telephone unit, Djezzy, with a claim for $596.6 million in unpaid taxes.

The Egyptian firm later said it was in talks with South Africa's MTN to sell Djezzy and other assets. Those talks collapsed after Algeria said it was exercising an option to buy Djezzy for itself.

An Algerian government minister said in May a $750 million deal with Ezz Steel had been frozen, in part because of the soccer row.

Mustapha Bouteflika, who did not hold any government post, died on Friday after a long illness and was buried the next day, Algerian official media reported.