Algerian commentators say French foot-dragging in acknowledging that harm was caused by the tests and in compensating victims has slowed efforts to improve ties between the two countries since a traumatic war for independence.

Algerian and French army veterans who visited a test site last year said local people became ill after the blasts, some of which were carried out under an agreement with the first Algerian government after independence in 1962.

France has denied any wrongdoing during its Saharan tests and says a report by International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) specialists who toured the sites in 1999 found that none of the sites was likely to expose people to levels in excess of international safety norms.

"We are waiting for the response of the (Algerian) government to suggestions we made on the basis of a report done by the IAEA," Bajolet was quoted as saying.

"And we are ready to carry out a new study and contribute if necessary to the clean-up operations," adding that this was something "that could have been done earlier".

Of 13 underground tests carried out in France's former North African colony between 1960 and 1966, four involved incidents in which radioactive gas leaked out, French officials have said.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has pushed for a new start to ties with Algeria. In October France moved to resolve another obstacle to better relations when it handed over details of where its forces laid millions of landmines half a century ago.

Algerian newspapers regularly report deaths and injuries of people who inadvertently step on independence-era landmines.

Bajolet said Algeria had never asked officially for maps locating the mines and that France had decided unilaterally to hand them over.

"The decision came very late. I don't personally understand why they were not handed over after independence," he said. "President Sarkozy has also taken a positive decision to care for those injured and crippled by the mines."