President Abdelmadjid Tebboune ordered ambassador Said Moussi to be recalled "with immediate effect", a statement said.

Ms Bouraoui, 46, was arrested in Tunisia on Friday and risked being deported to Algeria, but she was finally able to board a flight to France on Monday evening, the AFP news agency reports.

The French-Algerian was sentenced in Algeria in May 2021 to two years in jail for "offending Islam" and for insulting the president. She has not been placed under arrest since then pending an appeal.

French President Emmanuel Macron visited Algeria in August 2022 to repair fractured relations after a long period of tension over conflicting memories of Algeria's bloody war of independence.