Algerian ex-Minister to Run for President in 2014

Former Algerian finance minister Ali Benouari said he wants to "run for president" in his country's 2014 elections, according to an interview with a Swiss daily on Friday.

Speaking from Geneva, his home for the past 27 years, Benouari told La Tribune de Geneve that he would stand but admitted he had not expected to "announce his candidacy from Switzerland".

The former minister, 62, said he "thought he could infuse modernity into the debate" by running for office.

He added that he expected "free elections".

"The questions is how to stop the Islamists from winning again and exercising power for their own benefit."

An economist, Benouari was Algeria's finance minister from 1991 to 1992.

He was granted Swiss nationality in 2000 and has also stood for office in his adopted country.

He founded the Swiss Association of Muslims for Secularism and chairs a consulting company.