Sources: Algeria govt wants Orascom Telecom to leave

Algiers-- The Algerian government wants Egyptian group Orascom Telecom to relinquish its stake in Algeria's number one mobile telephone operator, government and financial industry sources said.

A senior government official with direct knowledge of the Orascom issue, who did not want to be named, said, "We don't want Orascom any more."

A financial industry source familiar with the government's thinking on Orascom who also did not want to be identified, told Reuters: "The government considers Orascom's way of doing business in Algeria as not in its interests. The consequence of that is that Orascom should exit the Algerian market."

A spokesman for Orascom Telecom's Algerian unit, Djezzy, said he had no comment.