By Lamine Chikhi

ALGIERS (Reuters) - President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has secured decisive support from the political and army elite for what Algerians say looks likely to be a bid to change the constitution and stand for a third term expiring in 2014.

Bouteflika's second and final five-year term as head of state of the OPEC member country runs out in April 2009, but political allies in recent months have urged the 70-year-old to change the basic law to enable him to stay on.

Two influential groups have added their voice to the calls: the National Rally for Democracy (RND), an anti-Islamist party believed to be close to the military, and a group of veterans of the north African state's independence war against France.

"We support the amending of the constitution to provide a legal framework to President Bouteflika so he can reinforce and guarantee the country's stability," Ahmed Ouyahia, RND leader and a former prime minister, told party officials on Saturday.

The National Organisation of War Veterans (Organisation Nationale des Moudjahidines), a powerful body in a system that regards veterans as revolutionary heroes, said in a statement:

"The ONM aspires to see the war veteran and President, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, pursue his noble tasks and realise the will of the national forces by running for a third term."

The former foreign minister has emerged as Algeria's most dominant head of state since 1960s military ruler Houari Boumedienne, helping rebuild the country after an undeclared 1990s civil war and ending its long isolation on the world stage.

But he stands accused by critics of being intolerant of dissent and hesitating to reform a Soviet-style command economy.

"Must Algeria always submit to the will of the powerful and their political-media apparatus? Doesn't it deserve alternating power (in elections)?" columnist Ali Bahmane wrote in El Watan of Bouteflika's apparent drive for a third term.

LARGE CONSENSUS

The Islamic Salvation Front, spearhead of an Islamist revolt in the early 1990s, remains banned. Algerians say many permitted secular parties are discredited bodies with no new ideas to end unemployment, build homes and end a lingering social malaise.

Commentators said the RND and ONM endorsements, which follow similar calls by Bouteflika's National Liberation Front (FLN) party and FLN-linked trade unions and youth groups, virtually guaranteed Bouteflika would seek a fresh mandate in 2009.

"There is a large consensus inside the military as well as within the political class that Bouteflika should be Algeria's next president," political analyst Mohamed Lakeb told Reuters.

An Islamic Movement for Peace and Society (MSP) party is expected to announce its support for Bouteflika shortly. The MSP, FLN and RND make up Algeria's ruling tripartite coalition.

The FLN says the constitution is ill-suited to the needs of a society emerging from an armed Islamic insurrection that lasted over a decade and killed up to 200,000 people.

The revolt began when the military, fearing an Iranian-style revolution, cancelled 1992 elections Islamists were set to win.

Violence has fallen sharply since the 1990s but almost 500 people were killed in 2007 as rebels stepped up attacks.

Bouteflika also says he wants a new constitution, but has not said what this would entail or outlined his own plans.