ALGIERS - An Algerian town hit by a suicide bomber who killed at least 22 people and wounded 107 in a failed bid to assassinate President Abdelaziz Bouteflika began burying its dead Friday, as condemnation of the attack grew.
State radio, giving the latest toll from Thursday's attack at Batna, in the east of the country, said that while 36 of the injured had left hospital others were in critical condition.
Funerals began taking place after Friday prayers, in which the official sermon called for a "cult of life" instead of a "cult of death."
Residents of Batna also staged a march, shouting "no to terrorism" and voicing support for Bouteflika.
The president himself, who had stayed on in Batna after the blast, attended the city's mosque where the prayer for the dead was said and expressed his condolences to the families of the victims.
The explosion occurred in a crowd waiting for the president to arrive on a tour of the Aures region. The attacker's behaviour had alerted those around him, prompting him to set off his bomb.
Authorities did not identify the killer.
In a television appearance late Thursday Bouteflika denounced the "criminals" responsible. He also vowed to pursue his national reconciliation policy which sets out to stop the conflict which was touched off when the Algerian government cancelled a multi-party elections in 1992 that the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) had won.
The authorities are still claiming successes against armed groups hiding in remote rural areas, but security sources said a new breed of suicide bombers had emerged.
Interior Minister Yazid Zerhouni sought to ward off criticism of security lapses that enabled the bomber to infiltrate Batna, saying Thursday that "it could have happened anywhere."
He also hinted at foreign involvement, as politicians of all colours condemned the attack as cowardly and against Islamic values.
King Mohammed VI of neighbouring Morocco expressed his "total condemnation" of the attack and assured Algeria of support to deal with "the terrorism that is the real common enemy of our brother peoples and their ancestral values."
Abroad, French President Nicolas Sarkozy called the bombing "barbaric and senseless violence."
He assured Bouteflika of the "full solidarity of France and my unswerving support in your fight against terrorism."
Russian President Vladimir Putin also "strongly" condemned the "barbarous act" in a message made public in Moscow and urged a strengthening of cooperation between their two countries to fight the "global scourge" of terrorism.
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