ALGIERS, Nov 24 (Reuters) - Two-way trade between France and Algeria, France's biggest trade partner in Africa, is on course to reach 10 billion euros ($12.88 billion) in 2008, a record high, Algeria's official APS news agency reported on Monday.
French ambassador Xavier Driencourt told reporters two-way exchanges between France and the OPEC member country in the first nine months of 2008 stood at 7.7 billion euros, a rise of 49 percent from the same period in 2007, the agency reported.
"This result ought to lead to ... reaching 10 billion euros in bilateral exchanges," he was quoted as saying.
In 2007 two-way trade amounted to 7.52 billion euros, with France running a surplus of 779 million euros, the French embassy website says. In 2006 trade stood at 8.17 billion euros, with France running a deficit of 97 million euros.
French diplomats say that while some of the increase is attributable to higher world prices for oil and gas -- Algeria's principal exports -- the increase also indicates a widening and deepening of French commercial interests in Algeria.
Driencourt said more than 300 subsidiaries of French companies were present in Algeria, three times as many as in 2005, directly employing 30,000 people and indirectly supporting 100,000 jobs, APS reported.
French exports are mainly food and agricultural products, worth 23 percent of the total, automobiles and automotive products, worth 15 percent, and pharmaceuticals, perfumes and cosmetics, worth 12 percent, APS said.
Algeria has a big appetite for imports ranging from automobiles, pharmaceuticals, food and industrial equipment. It is one of the world's biggest cereal importers, buying an average of 5 million tonnes per year on the international market.
Oil and gas account for more than 97 percent of Algeria's exports, with the hydrocarbon industry being the main engine of economic growth. ($=0.776 euro) (Reporting by William Maclean, editing by Ron Askew)