Second Suicide Bombing Hits Algeria (AP)

"I heard a big blast at about 8 this morning and I found out that it targeted the port of the city," said resident Saeed Hamdaoui, 28. "Then we heard ambulances."

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, which raised fears of a possible return to the intense Algerian violence of the 1990s, but al Qaeda's north Africa wing has said it carried out previous such blasts.

The interior ministry said the blast was carried out by two attackers who killed themselves in the attack. It was not immediately clear if they were included in the death toll of 30 published by the ministry. It said 47 people were wounded.

Most who died in the blast in the port town of Dellys, 70 kilometres (45 miles) east of Algiers, were members of the coastguard, but the interior ministry said three civilians also died and many of the 47 wounded were also civilians.

On Thursday, a suicide bomber killed 22 people and wounded more than 100 in an apparent assassination attempt on President Abdelaziz Bouteflika in the eastern city of Batna.

This time, a van normally used to deliver supplies to the barracks smashed through the rear entrance and penetrated 20 metres (yards) inside the base before exploding, according to witnesses.

Initial reports indicated the attackers hijacked the vehicle before packing it full of explosives.

At least 17 people were killed and 30 wounded on Saturday by a car bomb in the port of Dellys, 50 miles from Algiers, hospital sources told state news agency Algerie Presse Service.

The attack near a coast guard barracks comes after 19 people were killed and 107 wounded on Thursday, when a bomb ripped through a crowd waiting to see Algeria's President Abdelaziz Bouteflika in Batna, east of Algiers, Algerie Presse Service reported.

The French Foreign Ministry issued a statement condemning Saturday's bombing in Dellys and expressing its condolences to the victims' families.

Hospital officials told The Associated Press that all the victims were coast guard officials. The explosion went off during the barracks' morning flag-raising ceremony, AP reported.

There was no claim of responsibility for either attack.

The exiled former chief of Algeria’s Islamic Salvation Front (FIS), Abassi Madani, on Friday condemned the suicide bomb attack which killed 22 people in the east of his country.

"The FIS strongly condemns the criminal operation targeting the president of the republic, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, that left dozens of victims among innocent civilians," he said in a statement received by AFP in Qatar.

The Algerian town of Batna was hit by a suicide bomber who killed at least 22 people and wounded 107 in a failed bid to assassinate the president on Thursday. Interior Minister Yazid Zerhouni blamed Islamic militants.

"Our brother, President Abdelaziz..., consolidate your authority through justice and equality between all without distinction because Algeria is confronted by danger," Madani said, calling for "true national reconciliation."