Nouakchott has received requests from France and the International Criminal Court (ICC) to extradite Libya's ex-spy chief Abdullah Senussi, a security source said Sunday.

"For the time being two requests have been received by Mauritania. One from France arrived on Saturday and the second from the ICC on Sunday," the source told AFP.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy Saturday hailed the arrest in Mauritania of Abdullah al-Senussi, the spymaster of Moammar Gadhafi, and will seek his extradition to France, his office said.

Senussi faced an international arrest warrant after a Paris court sentenced him in absentia to life for his alleged involvement in an attack on a French airliner in 1989 that killed 170 people, a statement from the Elysee said.

Libya wants Mauritania to extradite Abdullah al-Senussi, the arrested spymaster of slain dictator Moammar Gadhafi who is wanted by the International Criminal Court, the government said on Saturday.

"Telephone calls are underway by Libyan authorities to request his extradition," spokesman Salah al-Manaa told a news conference in Tripoli.

Algeria proposed Saturday to boost cooperation with North African neighbors against terror and organized crime as the five-nation Arab Maghreb Union (UMA) held its first high-level conference since 1996.

Algeria sought "true and effective Maghreb cooperation in the fields of terrorism, organized crime, illegal arms and drug trafficking and clandestine immigration," Foreign Minister Mourad Medelci told counterparts in Rabat.

Syria's President Bashar al-Assad said on Friday that reforms have to be synchronized with a return to peace in the unrest-swept country, state media reported.

Assad, in remarks to visiting Mauritanian Prime Minister Moulaye Ould Mohamed Laghdaf, said that reforms and a "return to peace" must be concurrent in Syria, according to the official SANA news agency.

Mali's army has deployed extra troops and military equipment to its largely-desert north where Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb operates, officials said Friday.

"The Malian army has deployed men, equipment and over 200 vehicles to the north," an administrative source said.

A Mauritanian court has sentenced six Mauritanians and a Tunisian to prison terms for their connection to al-Qaida's North African offshoot.

The Nouakchott criminal court late Sunday sentenced two young Mauritanians for their membership to "a terrorist organization" -- without naming al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb -- and condemned them to five years in prison and a 500,000 Ouguiyas (1,250 Euro) fine.