UPDATE 1-Cameroon assembly clears way for Biya third term

(Recasts with assembly passing bill)

By Tansa Musa

YAOUNDE, April 10 (Reuters) - Cameroon's parliament adopted a constitutional bill on Thursday removing a two-term limit to allow President Paul Biya to extend his 25-year rule in the central African country past 2011, state radio reported.

Opposition lawmakers, who criticise the bill as a setback for democracy, stormed out of the chamber before the vote.

Plans to change the constitution were a major cause of riots in February that killed dozens of people, many shot dead by security forces.

Oil-producing Cameroon is one of the 10 biggest economies in sub-Saharan Africa although its crude oil output of around 90,000 barrels per day is half its 1980s peak.

Biya's ruling Cameroon People's Democratic Movement (CPDM) enjoys a huge majority in the National Assembly, controlling 153 of the house's 180 seats, and a vote in favour of the constitutional change was widely regarded as a formality.

The CPDM oversaw the introduction of a new constitution in 1996 which limited presidents to two seven-year terms. Biya's second term under that constitution expires in 2011, but he has made it clear in recent months he would like to stay on.

Parliament members from the Social Democratic Front (SDF), the main opposition with 15 seats in the assembly, walked out of the debate in protest, saying the assembly should not amend a constitution that emerged from cross-party negotiations in the early 1990s.