Algeria said Monday it supports "intensified efforts" by the U.N. envoy to Western Sahara, as he began a new tour of the region, while underlining the Sahrawi people's right to self-determination.

Christopher Ross flew to Rabat at the weekend on the first leg of his latest mission to break the deadlock over the disputed territory.

An Algerian blogger has been detained for posting cartoons on the Internet mocking President Abdelaziz Boutelifka, and is due to stand trial for "contempt" and "defending terrorism", his lawyer said Wednesday.

Abdelghani Aloui, 24, has been held in custody since September 25 and faces several charges, including "attacking the person of the president", Amine Sidhoum told Agence France Presse.

Flash floods killed seven people in Algeria on Wednesday, five of them in a normally arid region bordering the Sahara, emergency services said.

Two rivers burst their banks in Djelfa, 330 kilometers (205 miles), south of Algiers, on the escarpment where the High Plateaus of the center give way to the deserts of the south, the APS news agency reported.

Algeria has seized more than 127 tonnes of cannabis smuggled from Morocco in the first eight months of 2013, the head of the narcotics squad announced on Wednesday.

"In total, 127,098.875 kilos of cannabis resin... were seized in the first eight months of 2013," said Mohamed Zouggar, cited by official media.

Six policemen were injured in clashes between rival communities in the Algerian oasis town of Ghardaia, a security source and a human rights activist said on Tuesday.

Four people were arrested in connection with Monday's violence between young Chaambas of Arab origin and Mozabites, a Berber minority group which adheres to the Ibadi faith, an offshoot of Shiite Islam

Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, largely unseen for months because of health problems, presided over a cabinet meeting Sunday for the first time this year, media said.

The 76-year-old, in power since 1999, presided over a cabinet he had reshuffled earlier this month, which has already approved seven draft laws, including the 2014 budget, the APS news agency reported.

Algerians demanding work protested across the energy-rich North African nation on Saturday as organizers vowed more days of "rage".

Despite its vast hydrocarbon wealth, Algeria is plagued by high unemployment affecting 21.5 percent of those under 35, according to state and International Monetary Fund estimates.

Until three months ago, petrol smuggling literally drove Morocco's neglected eastern region, where the subsidised liquid smuggled in from Algeria fuelled the local economy.

But in June, Algiers took drastic measures to curtail the illegal trade, clamping down on traffic across its border with Morocco, which has officially been closed since 1994.

Algerian troops killed five Islamist gunmen east of the capital Friday, the defense ministry said, in the latest deadly violence to rock the restive Boumerdes province this month.

The militants died in clashes that broke out at 0600 GMT in a wooded area overlooking the town of Dellys and last for about three and a half hours, El-Watan reported separately, citing local sources.

Abdelaziz Bouteflika's sweeping cabinet changes and a rumored purge of the military intelligence services indicate Algeria's ailing president will run for re-election or extend his term, politicians and newspapers say.

This month's reshuffle replaced a third of Algeria's ministers, a bold political move by the 76-year-old president, who returned home in July after spending nearly three months in France recovering from a mini-stroke.