PHNOM PENH (AFP) -- Cambodia's royalist FUNCINPEC party on Saturday rejected a claim by Prince Norodom Ranariddh that he was illegally removed from the party's top leadership post.

Ranariddh was ousted as president of FUNCINPEC on Wednesday after the party voted unanimously to replace him with Keo Puth Rasmey, Cambodia's current ambassador to Germany and the son-in-law of former king Norodom Sihanouk.

The prince, a former prime minister and son of Sihanouk, was given the honorary title of "historic leader" at an extraordinary congress. Ranariddh refused to accept the decision and claimed that he was wrongly stripped of the post he had held since 1993, adding that his ouster was a "complete violation of FUNCINPEC party bylaws."

But FUNCINPEC's secretary-general Nhiek Bun Chhay rejected Ranariddh's claim, saying the prince must have misunderstood the party's rules.

"Some 80 percent of the party's national council members requested to convene the congress. So we did not organize it illegally," Nhiek Bun Chhay told reporters.

Nhiek Bun Chhay has accused Ranariddh of creating frictions in the kingdom's coalition government with Prime Minister Hun Sen's ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP), and of being absent from the country for too long to lead the party. Nhiek Bun Chhay said Wednesday's reshuffle was made "for the development of the party."

Ranariddh, 62, has led the FUNCINPEC party since 1993, but his leadership has been in question ever since he was ousted as prime minister by arch-rival Hun Sen in a coup in 1997.

The party has steadily lost support since the putsch, with Hun Sen's CPP winning the past two general elections.

The prince left his party in turmoil in March this year when he abruptly quit as head of parliament and went to France.