The United Nations Human Rights Commissioner, Mrs Mary Robinson, wants special envoys on torture and summary executions to go to Algeria to investigate massacres of civilians.
"She [Mrs Robinson] would like to see the visit of the special rapporteurs go ahead as soon as possible," said UN human rights spokesman Mr John Mills, speaking in Geneva yesterday.
Mrs Robinson, the former Irish president who took up her job as human rights commissioner in September, said she took to heart the concerns of many European countries and the United States over the massacres in Algeria. She wants the UN special rapporteur on torture, Mr Nigel Rodley, and the expert on extra-judicial, summary and arbitrary executions, Mr Bacre N'Diaye, to go to the strife-torn North African country, Mr Mills said.
Both men are in contact with the Algerian authorities and could hold talks with the Algerian delegation at the next six-week UN human rights commission session in Geneva starting in March.
Mrs Robinson declined to comment on a US proposal for a mission composed of independent human rights campaigners and representatives from European countries, which supports some kind of concerted action with the Algerian government.
"I am not going any further than that," Mr Mills responded when asked if Mrs Robinson supported the US initiative.
The UN Secretary General, Mr Kofi Annan, said on Monday he was "extremely worried" about the situation in Algeria, but added that his hands were tied since the Algerian government had not requested international assistance.
Mrs Robinson's public statements in the past several months on the crisis have infuriated the government in Algiers.
The Algerian mission to the UN last month warned Mrs Robinson against exerting any "pressure or blackmail" to enable the rapporteurs to visit Algeria.
Meanwhile in Paris, France, trying to soothe the feelings of a prickly Algerian government, said it had no intention of interfering in its former colony's internal affairs over the soaring death toll.
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Ms Anne Gazeau-Secret, told a news conference that Paris had been surprised by Algiers' reaction to ministry comments on Monday urging Algerian authorities to do more to end the massacres.
France backed a German proposal for an European Union initiative to try to end the killings, and the United States joined them in urging the Algerian government to do more to prevent massacres.