UPDATE 1-Colombia polarized by Uribe's battle with courts
(Adds Venezuela context in paragraph 12)
BOGOTA, June 30 (Reuters) - Colombian President Alvaro Uribe deepened his feud with the courts on Monday by going ahead with plans for a referendum aimed at rerunning the 2006 election in which he won a second term.
The popular leader reacted angrily to last week's Supreme Court ruling that said a former lawmaker was bribed by high government officials to support the constitutional amendment that allowed Uribe to seek re-election.
The judges recommended a legal review of the 2006 vote but rather than wait for that, the U.S-backed president wants to take his case directly to voters.
Uribe's move throws politics into turmoil as his long-simmering feud with Colombia's courts over his hard-line policies breaks into an open clash.
After the bribery ruling was handed down Uribe said the Supreme Court was politically biased and may even be influenced by Colombia's multibillion-dollar cocaine trade.
His combative strategy opens the possibility of a special election that could give him a new mandate and allow more public debate over whether he should be allowed to try to stay in power beyond 2010 when his current term ends.
"The referendum is on the way," presidential advisor Jose Obdulio Gaviria said as the opposition howled that Uribe is thumbing his nose at the judicial system and throwing off the constitutional checks and balances of the country.
The president's staff was busy on Monday drawing up the wording of the proposal. If it is approved by Congress the referendum will be put before the country's voters.
"If the court has doubts about my election, let's ask the people and see what they say," Uribe said after Thursday's Supreme Court decision.
Uribe, who has about 80 percent popularity based on his fight against leftist guerrillas fighting a four-decade-old insurgency, is portrayed this week on the cover of the Colombian news magazine Semana as a Roman emperor with the caption: "I am the power."
The president has regularly sparred with the courts over his peace negotiations with right-wing paramilitary militias, thousands of whom have demobilized under a deal offering them reduced jail terms for crimes including mass murder.
Uribe is an important U.S. ally in the left-tilting Andean region, where President Hugo Chavez of oil-rich Venezuela has voiced solidarity with Marxist Colombian rebels and often denounces U.S. "imperialism."
'BRINK OF BREAKDOWN'
"The face-off between Uribe and the court has brought the country to the brink of constitutional breakdown," said the usually pro-Uribe El Tiempo newspaper in a Sunday editorial. Continued...
