Algeria leader Bouteflika pledges constitutional reform
Algerians gather to watch President Bouteflika's speech on a giant screen in Telemcen, 15 April The speech was long awaited
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Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who has been in power for 12 years, has promised to amend the constitution to "strengthen democracy".

Delivering a long-awaited speech on state TV, he said a constitutional commission would be created to draw up the necessary amendments.

It was his first address to the nation in three months.

Unrest broke out in January with strikes, marches and rioting echoing protests elsewhere in the Arab world.

Under pressure to amend the constitution and limit presidential terms, the 74-year-old leader lifted the country's state of emergency in February, after 19 years.

However, the trigger for the unrest appears to be mainly economic, especially sharp increases in the price of food.

"To crown the institutional edifice with the aim of strengthening democracy, it is important to introduce the necessary amendments to the constitution," Mr Bouteflika said in his speech.

"Active political currents" would join constitutional law experts in drawing up the amendments, he said.

In addition, electoral law would be "revised in depth", with the participation of "the political parties, whether present [in parliament] or not".

The current constitution, adopted in 1996, was introduced to strengthen presidential law and ban religion-based parties following Algeria's murderous war between the military and Islamist militants, in which some 150,000 people were killed.