(CNN) -- Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika said Thursday he will soon end a two-decades-long state of emergency in that county, according to a news report.
Bouteflika said he would lift the ban in the "very close future". The announcement was reported by the Algerian Press Service.
Experts say the announcement is a clear attempt by the Algerian leader to head off the kind of social unrest that toppled the autocratic Tunisian government and now threatens the regime of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.
Bouteflika's announcement comes about two weeks after government opponents marched in the North African nation to demand that the ban be lifted. The demonstrators also called for the release of detainees and the restoration of individual and collective freedoms. CNN
