Troops in Algeria, backed by three helicopter gunships, are reported to have engaged Islamist rebels in the southwest of the country.

Local newspaper reports say about forty rebels were killed; the armed group were suspected of attacking a town Ain Nsour in the southwest of the country.

The reports say three soldiers were shot dead and another nineteen injured in the clash.

It occured after troops tracked down the rebels at their mountainous hideout in the Ain Defla province, 130 kilometres southwest of Algiers.

Tens of thousands of people have been killed in violence since 1992, following the cancellation of a general election in which radical Islamists had taken a commanding lead.