The "local" structure of a quantum group G q is currently considered to be an infinite-dimensional object: the corresponding quantum universal enveloping algebra U q (g), which is a Hopf algebra deformation of the universal enveloping algebra of a n-dimensional Lie algebra g = Lie(G). However, we show how, by starting from the generators of the underlying Lie bialgebra (g, δ), the analyticity in the deformation parameter(s) allows us to determine in a unique way a set of n "almost primitive" basic objects in U q (g), that could be properly called the "quantum algebra generators". So, the analytical prolongation (g q , ∆) of the Lie bialgebra (g, δ) is proposed as the appropriate local structure of G q . Besides, as in this way (g, δ) and U q (g) are shown to be in one-to-one correspondence, the classification of quantum groups is reduced to the classification of Lie bialgebras. The su q (2) and su q (3) cases are explicitly elaborated.MSC: 81R50, 16W30, 17B37