Algiers (Algeria), Oct. 19: Ameena Madani wore a pink Benarasi sari the day she got married last year.

Before anyone says what's so unusual about that, Ameena is an Algerian and the wedding was in Algeria.

Indian lehngas and saris are becoming a rage and a key part of wedding trousseaus in this north African country where the bride has to wear seven different dresses on the day of her wedding.

Which explains why Benarasi, tussar, Kanjivaram and Dhakai jamdani saris are doing brisk business in Oran, a coastal city in north-west Algeria.

According to Indian ambassador Satbir Singh, sari exports from India to Algeria aggregated over $60 million a year.

Ameena said she wore a white dress as the last outfit at the time of going off with her husband. But it was her pink Benarasi that was appreciated the most, recalled the young woman.

"It (the sari) is becoming part of the outfits the bride parades in," confirmed Youshra Tebbiche, who is doing her postgraduation from the University of Algiers Benyoucef Benkhedda. "It became fashionable about five years ago and now you find it sold along with other traditional outfits in many shops."

The trend, it appears, owes a lot to Bollywood, especially Devdas. "The outfits worn by Aishwarya Rai and Madhuri Dixit became a rage," said architecture student Zehra Wassim, while gushing on Shah Rukh Khan.

Sanjay Leela Bhansali's 2002 film, based on Saratchandra Chattopadhyay's novel, had reached Algeria five years late but became an instant hit.

Algeria's love for Indian saris unfolded as Vice-President Hamid Ansari, who visited Hungary earlier, reached the African country on the second leg of his two-nation tour.

Ansari called on Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, an admirer of independent India's first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru.

Bouteflika was Algeria's foreign minister in 1963 when Nehru was still in office. Nearly 40 years later, he was the chief guest at India's Republic Day celebrations in 2001.

Ansari also had a high-level interaction with Abdelmalek Sellal, Algeria's current Prime Minister and the likely successor to an ailing Bouteflika.

Sujata Mehta, secretary (west) in India's ministry of external affairs, said the top Algerian leadership "resolutely support" India's stand against terrorism.

Speaking in the context of last month's Uri attack, she said Algeria, also a victim of terrorism, fully understood and supported India's stand. "There was a meeting of minds to fight terrorism," Mehta added.

Ansari visited Wilaya Tipaza on the Mediterranean seafront, 68km west of Algiers, a place that breathes history. Some of the ruins in Tipaza date back to the 6th century BC.

The Vice-President also visited Algier's famous Ketchaoua mosque, a Unesco world heritage site at the foot of the Casbah, which was built during Ottoman rule in the 17th century.

Ansari's visit to Algeria came after more than two decades of "cooling off" in bilateral relations. The Vice-President said the cooling-off period had followed a difference of opinion on a third country, but that period was over now.

"They (Algeria) want cooperation and we want cooperation," he said. "Both sides want the relations to be strengthened."

Ambassador Singh said Algeria had extensive deposits of phosphate and India wants to explore whether joint-venture industries could be set up in Algeria with Algerian phosphate and gas and Indian funds and technology so that fertilisers could be brought to India from Algeria instead of raw materials.