PRESIDENT Ibrahim Bare Mainassara of Niger arrived in Paris on Tuesday at the start of a four-day official visit. He is due to meet his French counterpart Jacques Chirac on Thursday. A meeting with top officials of Codema, one of the main players in the mining of uranium, Niger’s most lucrative resource, is also planned. France is Niger’s biggest aid donor. Mainassara first came to power in a coup in January 1996. In July of that year, he went on to win a presidential poll which the opposition denounced as irregular.