An Algerian court sentenced the head of al-Qaida's north African offshoot to death in his absence Tuesday for a string of 2007 attacks, including the deadly bombing of the prime minister's office.

Abdelmalek Droukdel, leader of al-Qaida in the Islamic Magreb (AQIM), and eight co-defendants were sentenced to death for premeditated murder, membership of a terrorist group and attacks using explosives, said judge Tayeb Hillali of the court in Algiers.

Algeria's opposition Rally for Culture and Democracy elected its spokesman Mohcine Belabbas as its new leader Saturday at a conference in the capital.

Founder-member Said Sadi, 65, had announced on Friday that he was standing down from the leadership "to make way for young people".

Algeria's prime minister vowed on Sunday to eradicate terrorism, a day after a suicide bomber crashed an explosives-laden car into a police station in the remote Algerian desert.

Twenty-three people were injured and the attacker killed in Saturday's blast in Tamanrasset, 1,800 kilometers (1,100 miles) south of Algiers, in what was the first attack of its kind in that part of the country.

An al-Qaida splinter group claimed Saturday to have carried out a suicide attack on a military base in southern Algeria which left 24 people wounded.

"We inform you that we are behind the explosion that occurred this morning at Tamanrasset," a message sent to Agence France Presse and signed by the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa said.

There is "every possibility" that Syria could descend into a civil war which could be worsened by foreign intervention, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told the BBC on Sunday.

"I think that there's every possibility of a civil war. Outside intervention would not prevent that -- it would probably expedite it," Clinton said in an interview conducted in Rabat, Morocco.

The people of north Africa's Maghreb region "need and deserve" to determine their own future, U.S. Secretary State Hillary Clinton said in Algeria Saturday, ahead of elections there in May.

Clinton was speaking during a brief visit to the country a day after attending a "Friends of Syria" international gathering in neighboring Tunisia, and hours before flying on to Morocco.

Algeria has uncovered a large cache of weapons believed to originate from Libya, including dozens of shoulder-held missiles that can be used to shoot down airliners, newspapers said Monday.

According to the French-speaking el-Watan, 15 SA-24 and 28 SAM-7 Russian-made man-portable surface-to-air missiles were found at a location in the southern desert called In Amenas.

A roadside bomb blast killed four people and injured 10 other passengers on a bus east of the Algerian capital on Sunday, local news websites reported.

A security source confirmed the blast to AFP but did not give a toll or say whether the victims were civilians or military.

Algeria proposed Saturday to boost cooperation with North African neighbors against terror and organized crime as the five-nation Arab Maghreb Union (UMA) held its first high-level conference since 1996.

Algeria sought "true and effective Maghreb cooperation in the fields of terrorism, organized crime, illegal arms and drug trafficking and clandestine immigration," Foreign Minister Mourad Medelci told counterparts in Rabat.

Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki arrived Sunday in Algeria for his first official visit, during which he is to push for a revival of the Arab Maghreb Union.

Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika and Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia met him at Algiers airport at the start of his two-day visit, the final stage of a regional tour during which he has been promoting the Arab Maghreb Union.