Algerian president's backer calls on party to heal rift ahead of vote

ALGIERS (AFP) — Algerian Foreign Minister Abdelaziz Belkhadem has called on two rival factions in the ruling National Liberation Front (FLN) to hold a "unifying" congress after months of acrimony dividing the party.

Belkhadem, who heads the FLN's "reform faction" backing President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, told a press conference late Wednesday that the party should hold an all-inclusive congress to heal the damaging rift in the party ahead of a presidential election in April.

He said the congress should bring together the "two wings" -- his pro-Bouteflika faction and a rival faction backing Ali Benflis, Bouteflika's former government chief whom he sacked last May.

The unity congress should "rectify the party's political line," and elect its presidential candidate "without marginalization, without exclusion," Belkhadem said.

The FLN is facing its worst internal crisis since bloody riots in October 1988 ended the monopoly of power it had enjoyed since leading ...