Algeria's Bouteflika seeks to curb security service power

Algeria's President Abdelaziz Bouteflika gives a speech during a ceremony for the start of the new academic semester at a university in Setif, some 300km (186 miles) east of Algiers November 12, 2009. REUTERS/Zohra Bensemra

ALGIERS (Reuters) - Algeria's President Abdelaziz Bouteflika wants to push through constitutional reforms before 2014 elections to put an end to the powerful intelligence service's role as political kingmaker, the ruling FLN party's chairman said.

Any challenge to the Department of Intelligence and Security (DRS) would amount to a major shakeup in Algeria where observers say the security agency has ruled behind the scenes with members of an FLN elite since independence from France in 1962.