ALGIERS (AFP) - French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius nodded off during a business meeting in Algiers, with his drooping head caught on camera and going viral on social media.

The scene, broadcast by Algeria's pro-regime television channel En-Nahar and lasting 75 sleepy seconds, shows France's top diplomat dozing off, reawakening, smiling and then falling back to sleep several times.

The incident took place on Monday morning, when Mr Fabius and Algerian Industry Minister Abdesselam Bouchouareb, seated to his left, were taking questions from Algerian businessmen at a meeting in the capital.

Mr Fabius was on a two-day visit to the former French colony which he wrapped up after the meeting.

Before he left, as if to dispel any doubt about French interest in Algeria, he insisted at a news conference that France wanted to remain the country's top economic partner.