Mali Foreign Minister Sadio Lamine Sow arrived in Algeria Sunday in a two-day working visit, the local APS news agency reported

At his arrival at Algiers International Airport of Houari- Boumediene, Mr Sow was welcomed by Minister for Maghreb and African Affairs, Abdelkader Messahel.

During his visit, Mr Sow is due to hold talks with top Algerian officials, while the crisis in Mali should be on the core of these discussions.

Algiers is seen as a key country in terms of its ability to resolve the crisis in this Sahel nation hit by violence in the north after that Tuareg separatists of the National Movement of the Liberation of Azawad (NMLA) proclaimed their independent state there.

Last week, Foreign Minister of Burkina Faso, Jibril Bassole, visited Algeria as an envoy of Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to mediate on the crisis in Mali. He stated that the ECOWAS favours dialogue to settle the crisis in Mali, but they do not exclude a military action.

The same statement was made by UK Minister for Africa Alistair Burt, who visited Algeria ten days ago.

Meanwhile, Mali's interim Prime Minister Cheikh Modibo Diarra and Head of ECOWAS Alassane Ouatara also visited Algeria to discuss the crisis in the neighbouring Mali.

Northern Mali has been controlled for nearly three months by Tuareg rebels and Islamist extremists, including the Movement for the Monotheism and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO), which claimed the suicide attack that targeted Friday a headquarters of National Gendarmerie in Ouargla, 850 km southeast Algiers.

Algiers is familiar with the Malian issue, as it has already played mediation roles between the Tuareg rebels and Bamako. It is worth to recall that a peace treaty was signed between Tuareg rebels in Kidal, northeast of Mali, and Bamako, in Algiers in 2006.