The National Liberation Front (FLN) began its long-awaited congress on Sunday to try to unify Algeria's largest political party and bring stability to a country emerging from more than a decade of violence. Solving the crisis of the FLN - torn apart by backing the losing candidate in the 2004 presidential election - is seen as a prerequisite to bringing political stability as the government tries to reform Algeria's oil-rich $80-billion economy and needs the support of a party that controls parliament.
The FLN was created out of the independence movement which fought a bloody war against colonial power France in the 1950s and has ruled the North African country for most of the last 40 years. Until recently, it had always backed the nation's president.