Reports from Algeria say security forces have killed a Yemeni man who is thought to be a senior member of al-Qaeda.

The Algerian news agency APS quotes security sources as saying that the man, Emad Abdelwahid Ahmed Alwan, was al-Qaeda's top official in North Africa.

He was killed in September when he was ambushed by troops in Batna province, but his body was only recently identified.

Correspondents says it is the first time Algeria has admitted that al-Qaeda has a presence in the country.

The reports say the al-Qaeda official was sent to Algeria to assess the hardline Islamic Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat.

It is one of the two armed groups fighting the Algerian Government and it is on the United States' list of terrorist organisations.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service