Police, protesters clash over Bolivia's capital

SUCRE, Bolivia (Reuters) - Protesters armed with clubs and stones clashed with police in southern Bolivia on Saturday in demonstrations demanding the full relocation of the country's government to Sucre from La Paz.

Police responded for a second day with tear gas and also fired rubber bullets to disperse thousands of demonstrators outside an assembly charged with crafting a new constitution.

The protesters want Sucre to become Bolivia's "full capital," with Congress and government offices shifted from the administrative capital, La Paz, a stronghold of leftist President Evo Morales.

Nominally, Sucre is the South American country's capital, but it is home only to the top courts, while the legislature and the seat of government are in La Paz.

Protests over the capital began in August, forcing the assembly, which sits in Sucre, to suspend debates for three months.

Although there were no immediate reports of the number of people hurt during Saturday's clashes, similar protests a day before left about 100 people injured, the state news agency ABI reported.

The protests came amid a power struggle between Morales and his conservative rivals, who want more autonomy for the regions they govern and who also support the capital switch.

Delegates have been meeting since Friday under heavy military guard in an army compound, vowing to speed up deliberations to produce a new constitution before their mandate expires on December 14.

Delegates taking part in assembly sessions are mainly from Morales' Movement Toward Socialism party, or MAS, as most opposition representatives decided to boycott the debates.