DUBAI (AFP) - Algerian police on Friday briefly detained Ali Belhadj, a leader of the banned Islamic Salvation Front, a London-based Islamic organisation said.

The Islamic Observatory, which claims to defend Muslim causes worldwide, said he was arrested on his way to a press conference by Interior Minister Yazid Zerhouni to announce the results of Thursday's parliamentary elections.

"He (Belhadj) was heading to a press conference given by the interior minister ... when he was arrested and taken to a police station for questioning and was released after a number of hours," it said.

The three parties allied with President Abdelaziz Bouteflika retained their clear majority in Algeria's parliament at the polls.

The National Liberation Front (FLN), the Democratic National Rally (RND) and the Society of Peace Movement (MSP) together clinched 249 of the 389 seats in the National People's Assembly.

In 1992, the FIS took a commanding lead in a first round of Algerian elections which the military-dominated authorities then scrapped. The party was later banned, sparking an insurgency that claimed at least 150,000 lives.

Belhadj was sentenced to 12 years in jail with FIS leader Abassi Madani when the Islamic movement was banned but released in 2003.