Algeria's President Abdelaziz Bouteflika on Thursday set a May 10 date for parliamentary elections.

"We will begin the new step of political reforms by holding parliamentary elections on May 10, 2012, in conformity with the new electoral code that has entered into force," he said in a speech broadcast on national TV and radio.

The election will be the fourth multiparty parliamentary vote in Algeria, which last went to the polls in 2007.

It will also be the first since the Arab Spring began last year with a popular revolt in neighbouring Tunisia, which triggered unrest in Algeria and led Bouteflika to pledge a raft of reforms last April.

The government announced Tuesday that the number of parliamentary seats would be raised from 389 to 462.