French President François Hollande arrived in Morocco on Saturday on an official visit that takes place amid a backdrop of controversy over torture lawsuits in Paris against the kingdom's intelligence chief, reports AFP.
Hollande, accompanied by five ministers and a delegation of business leaders, was met on the tarmac in Tangiers by King Mohammed VI at the start of the two-day visit.
"I want France and Morocco to enter a new phase of partnership," Hollande said.
"We have a common will to act in Africa and also to fight against terrorism, which remains our top priority," he said after receiving military honours and a traditional offering of dates and milk.
He was to hold a series of meetings at the palace, attend the signing of a bilateral agreement on the training of imams and inaugurate with the king a service centre for trains of the future Tangiers-Casablanca high-speed line.
The first train for the rail link was delivered by the French group Alstom in June.
Human rights groups are concerned Hollande might use the visit to bestow France's top honour, the Légion d'Honneur, on Abdellatif Hammouchi, the head of Morocco's domestic intelligence agency.
In February, French interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve announced that Paris would decorate Hammouchi with the award for his role in the fight against terrorism.
Hollande's aides, however, have said there is no plan to award the Légion d'Honneur to Hammouchi during the visit.
Morocco suspended all judicial cooperation with Paris between February 2014 and January 2015 after a French judge summoned Hammouchi over torture complaints filed against him in Paris.
Read more of this AFP report published by Yahoo News.
See also:
Paris-Rabat row ends with Moroccan spy chief to be given Légion d'honneur
The disturbing case of French journalists’ ‘blackmail’ of Moroccan king
How France 'caved in' to Morocco over torture row
Moroccan rights activist denounces a 'relaunch of repression’