Those with "grudges and animosity towards the army and its command... are undoubtedly enemies of Algeria", said Gaid Salah, the country's strongman since longtime president Abdelaziz Bouteflika was ousted in April.

"Those who are knowingly trying to circumvent... terms of the constitution, do they realise what it means to suppress all state institutions?" he asked in a speech.

Gaid Salah said a constitutional void would amount to "the destruction of the foundations of the Algerian national state".

"It is unthinkable to proceed in the name of the people with the destruction of the achievements of the Algerian people, that is to say... the constitution."

Street protests of the type that led to Bouteflika's ouster have carried on with demonstrators demanding the fall of regime insiders and the establishment of independent institutions.