France proposes intelligence trade

PARIS, May 23 (UPI) -- France has offered to participate in an intelligence trade with Mauritania in a move to expand anti-terrorist efforts, officials said.

French officials also said they would increase security training procedures in Mauritania, Med Basin Newsline reported.

"We need to strengthen our ties in terms of intelligence gathering and analysis of the situation and our capacity to work together," French Interior Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said.

Alliot-Marie took part in meetings with authorities in Mauritania while on a trip there Wednesday. She said the country seemed willing to increase efforts against al-Qaida.

"We discussed the mounting risks that we are jointly running and which justify the implementation of measures to strengthen our cooperation and forge even closer ties between the two countries," she said in the Med Basin Newsline report. "This is more (important) given the terrorist threat that continues to remain real throughout this region and also the whole of Europe."