Algeria's president promises political reform

Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika promised to introduce wide-ranging reforms Saturday after police blocked anti-government protests in the capital, the APS news agency reported.

The lifting of the state of emergency last month "will be a new page opened on the path to comprehensive reforms ... which cannot be fruitful in the absence of political reforms," the APS news agency quoted Bouteflika as saying.

Security forces swamped the centre of the Algerian capital Saturday, hampering bids by pro-reform activists to rally although a small number of protesters made it through the barricades.

A helicopter patrolled from the skies as police blocked off the city centre, erecting barricades on pavements, controlling the traffic and heading off anyone aiming to join two planned protests, AFP correspondents reported.

A rally called by youths through Facebook was due outside the main post office; the other, at nearby May 1 Square, was called by the National Coordination for Change and Democracy (CNDC) against the "political system".

It was the seventh attempt since January by the CNDC to stage a weekly demonstration, along the lines of pro-democracy protests sweeping the Arab world, in defiance of a ban on protests in the capital imposed in 2001.

The group was established after rioting at January 21 protests over the high cost of living left five dead and 800 injured, but has since split over differences over the strategy for regime change.

A few activists were able to reach the May 1 Square, including Rally for Culture and Democracy lawmaker Tahar Besbes who was wounded and hospitalised in scuffles with police at an earlier demonstration.

A CNCD founder and honorary president of the Algerian League of Human Rights, Ali Yahia Abdennour, 90, was also there but was closely monitored by security officers.

"We will continue to march every Saturday," he said. "This regime must leave. Fifty years, that's enough."

Some also made it to the post office but it was impossible to tell how many. "I know that about 50 of my friends are here," said a 26-year-old named Walid.

Saturday's demonstrations were to coincide with the 49th anniversary of a ceasefire that led to Algerian independence from France on April 19.

A protest has also been called for Sunday by the National Committee of the Unemployed (CNC) to demand decent jobs and unemployment benefits, and measures to protect employees on short-term contracts.

Algeria has been shaken by protests at all levels of society with strikes by students, doctors and auxiliary police.