ALGIERS (EJP)---French president Nicolas Sarkozy called to fight any form of racism, Islamophobia and anti-Semitism "with determination and without any failing."

Speaking on Monday to French and Algerian business people in Algiers on the first day of his state visit to Algeria, Sarkozy declared: "In France as in Algeria, we must fight with determination and without failing any form of racism, any form of Islamophobia and any form of anti-Semitism.”

“Racism, Islamophobia and anti-Semitism cannot be explained but rather fought. What is worth for France is worth everywhere else. There is nothing more similar to an anti-Semite than an Islamophobe. Both have the same face of stupidity and hatred,” he added.

The run-up to Sarkozy’s visit was clouded by remarks made last week by an Algerian minister who charged that the president – whose maternal grandfather was Jewish -- owed his election in May to a "Jewish lobby."

Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika firmly disowned the comments by his veterans minister, Mohammed-Cherif Abbas, who was not among the welcome delegation meeting Sarkozy at Algiers airport.

Sarkozy dismissed outraged calls, mainly from the French Socialist opposition, for him to cancel his trip, saying he considered the matter closed.