By JAMEY KEATEN
The Associated Press
Tuesday, November 14, 2006; 12:25 AM

ALGIERS, Algeria -- France's interior minister said Monday that 15 European nations have agreed to speed up visa processing for Algerians traveling to Europe.

Nicolas Sarkozy said the nations of the borderless travel zone known as Schengen will no longer consult one another before granting visa requests from Algerians _ a move expected to trim the waiting time for those seeking visas from about 15 days to just one to three days.

"France has, regarding visas, lifted the prior consultation, along with other Schengen countries," Sarkozy said after meeting with his Algerian counterpart Yazid Zerhouni.

As part of security measures enacted in 1995 at the height of an Islamic insurgency in Algeria, Schengen member states agreed to grant visas to Algerians only with prior consultation with the other member states.

French officials said Sarkozy led efforts with European partners to lift the visa restrictions largely because France, Algeria's former colonial master, processes about 80 percent of Algerian applications for visas to the Schengen zone.

In 2005, some 250,000 Algerians requested visas to France, according to Sarkozy's office. About 60 percent were approved.

The Schengen countries are Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Italy, Greece, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain and Sweden.

Sarkozy reached agreements with Spain and Germany, the last holdouts among the Schengen countries, in the past few months. He also won major concessions from Algeria, French officials said.

Michel Gaudin, France's national police chief, said Algerian officials had agreed to hand over a list with the names of detainees who were released from prison in a recent amnesty deal offered by Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika _ an attempt to turn the page on the country's 13-year-long Islamic insurgency.

"They agreed ... to provide identification of those who have been freed," Gaudin told The Associated Press at a reception for Sarkozy's delegation at the French embassy in Algiers. He said 30 people on the list had already been expelled from France.

Sarkozy was in the Algerian capital for two days of talks on terrorism and illegal immigration. But calls for Paris to acknowledge its colonial-era crimes were expected to top the minister's agenda.

Bouteflika has pressed France to apologize for what he says are colonial-era crimes, including during the independence war when, Algiers alleges, torture was systematic. Algeria gained independence from France in 1962, ending 132 years of colonial rule.

The visit here by Sarkozy, considered the leading conservative candidate in France's 2007 presidential vote, followed previous trips to other former colonies in Africa that are also sources of immigration _ much of it illegal _ to France. The leading rival in the opposition Socialist camp, Segolene Royal, has also made visits to Africa.