Bouteflika, right, and his rival Benflis, who is going to win?

ALGIERS, December 30 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - A political tug-of-war between Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika and his former head of government Ali Benflis intensified Tuesday, December 30, with a court order freezing the activities and funds of the National Liberation Front (FLN), the divided ruling party.

The order, in response to a complaint lodged by the party's pro-Bouteflika "reform faction," also declared an FLN party congress held in March "null and void" because it failed to respect the party statutes, the state news agency APS reported, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).

The party congress had re-elected Benflis Secretary General of the FLN, the north African country's former sole ruling party, and broadened his powers while dropping its backing of Bouteflika, whom the party had propelled to power in April 1999.

Benflis, whom Bouteflika fired as head of government in May, has announced his candidacy in an April Presidential election, while the President has not yet said whether he will vie for a second term.

The reform faction had won a legal injunction against an extraordinary congress of the FLN, which went ahead regardless on October 3, confirming Benflis's candidacy.

The freeze implies that Benflis, a former human rights lawyer, will be unable to run as the FLN's candidate in April, forcing him to revamp his electoral strategy, observers here said.

Bouteflika's former right-hand man reacted immediately to the move, telling AFP it "shows once again that the President ... will stop at nothing to slake his unquenchable thirst for power."

The administrative chamber of the Algiers Court froze all FLN bank accounts "until the situation is brought into compliance and conformity with the law," APS reported, adding that the FLN had the right to appeal the ruling.

The reform faction, whose leader, Foreign Minister Abdelaziz Belkhadem, accused Benflis of "confiscating" the FLN at the March party congress, is demanding a new congress.

The FLN holds an absolute majority in the National Assembly with 203 of the 389 deputies. The respective strength of the rival factions is unknown, but Belkhadem says 75 deputies have joined his reform movement as well as 3,000 members of local assemblies and a large number of activists.

The rivalry between Bouteflika and Benflis came into full public view in September when the President sacked six Ministers known to be close to Benflis.

On October 2 the FLN withdrew all other pro-Benflis Ministers from the government because of what it described as Bouteflika's "irresponsible and heretical behavior."

The FLN is facing its worst internal crisis since bloody riots in October 1988 ended the monopoly of power it had enjoyed since leading the 1954-62 war of independence from France.