German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Saturday she believes a stable partnership with Socialist French president-elect Francois Hollande is possible after she backed his rival Nicolas Sarkozy.

In answer to a journalist's question to that effect, the conservative leader said: "Yes, I think I can, because we know that... good Franco-German relations are quite simply very important for both countries."

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called for a "new era" in Franco-Turkish relations in a congratulatory phone call to president-elect Francois Hollande, officials said Friday.

In the call late on Thursday, Erdogan said he hoped "Turko-French relations will from now on be free from artificial questions currently affecting them," an official in Erdogan's entourage said.

The European Union sharply condemned Thursday's two powerful blasts in Damascus, describing the attacks as "an act of pure terrorism."

"We strongly condemn the twin bomb attacks," said Michael Mann, spokesman for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton.

Voting began across Algeria Thursday in the country's first polls since the Arab Spring swept the region, with the ruling party, its Islamist allies and a boycott movement all hoping for victory.

The first of the more than 48,000 polling stations in Africa's largest country opened at 8:00 am (0700 GMT), many under tight police surveillance.

France strongly condemned Wednesday's bomb attack on a convoy of U.N. observers in Syria, including the Norwegian major general heading the mission, foreign ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said.

"We strongly condemn the attack targeting the convoy of General Robert Mood, head of the Syrian observer mission," said Valero. "We hold the Damascus regime responsible for the observers' security."

Outgoing French leader Nicolas Sarkozy's cabinet met for its last session on Wednesday as president-elect Francois Hollande held talks with top Socialists to gear up for next month's parliamentary vote.

Hollande also held consultations on forming a government and preparing for his first foreign visit, to Berlin, where he is expected to get a frosty reception over his plans to renegotiate the European fiscal austerity pact.

After slamming Europe's austerity fix for the debt crisis, Francois Hollande's crusade for growth began picking up support even before his win, but can he bring the skeptics and the markets around?

One of only a handful of Socialist leaders at the European Union table, Hollande's win adds another voice for the left after the ousters of Britain's Gordon Brown, Portugal's Jose Socrates and Spain's Jose Luis Zapatero.

A Syrian daily on Monday hailed the defeat in France's presidential elections of Nicolas Sarkozy, whose foreign minister Alain Juppe had raised the prospect of military intervention to end the crisis.

"The Sarkozy-Juppe duo in the dustbin of history," announced the front page headline of pro-government daily, al-Watan.

European and world leaders reached out Monday to president-elect Francois Hollande, France's first Socialist head of state in 17 years, despite jitters about his pledge to renegotiate Europe's austerity pact.

The euro sank and stock markets fell as the results of the presidential vote in France and Greece's general election stoked anxiety about the fate of austerity policies designed to end the Eurozone’s crippling debt crisis.

Final results for France's presidential election confirmed Monday that Socialist candidate Francois Hollande won with 51.62 percent of the vote to Nicolas Sarkozy's 48.38, the interior ministry said.

The final official tally recorded more than 18 million votes for the victor -- who had already been recognized as president-elect. Sarkozy got 16.9 million votes and 2.1 million people cast blank or spoiled ballots.