ALGIERS -- A presidentially appointed committee of inquiry has pinned much of the blame for a revolt that has bloodied a Berber region of Algeria on paramilitary gendarmes whom it accused of insubordination and excessive use of firearms.

But the committee, set up by President Abdelaziz Bouteflika to look into almost three months of clashes between Berbers and security forces, did not say if the gendarmes would face punishment.

The Kabylie region has been torn by unprecedented unrest sparked in April by the killing of a Berber teenager in custody at a gendarmerie barrack, Reuters said.

Official media say 55 young demonstrators have been killed in the clashes. Independent sources put the figure at around 80.

"The violence that occurred against civilians was a war, using war munitions," the committee said in the report.

At first confined to Kabylie, unrest has spread elsewhere in the vast, oil-rich North African country, fanned by deep frustration among young people over high unemployment, housing shortages and perceived widespread corruption.

In addition to demands for jobs, housing and the evacuation of gendarmes, Berber militants also call for the recognition of their Tamazight tongue as an official language.

The report said the gendarmes had used live ammunition, engaged in looting and provoked opponents during the unrest.

"The gendarmes intervened without orders from the civil authorities, as the law states, and orders not to use weapons were not (followed)," it said.

Human rights abuses compounded by "social, economic and political" ills had fuelled clashes.

The committee, chaired by lawyer Mohand Issad, said it had "encountered some hesitation and veiled rejection of its request for some information and documents".

"Some sources contacted us by telephone or through intermediaries but they declined to testify under current conditions," it said without elaborating.

Unemployment afflicts more than 30 percent of youth and there is an estimated shortage of more than one million houses in a country still struggling to overcome a nine-year Islamic insurgency in which 100,000 people have been killed.

That violence erupted after military-backed authorities cancelled a general election that a now-outlawed radical Islamic party was poised to win.

Bouteflika has pledged a three-year, $5.0 billion program program to solve Algeria's economic and social problems.