INTERVIEW-Bolivia's Morales defends constitution rewrite

By Ignacio Badal

LA PAZ, Dec 1 (Reuters) - President Evo Morales says his push to overhaul Bolivia's constitution will "hand power to the people" and dismisses claims by critics that the move is aimed at concentrating his power.

The sweeping constitutional changes, a key Morales project, are at the center of a power struggle between the leftist leader and his conservative rivals.

His foes shut down large parts of Bolivia on Wednesday in a one-day protest after his allies pushed through a draft of the constitution last weekend in an assembly boycotted by the opposition and amid protests that left at least three people dead.

"This new constitution will hand power to the people and deepens democracy," Morales told Reuters in an interview.

The new framework would allow Morales to seek re-election indefinitely, give indigenous groups more political power and increase state control over the economy in the mineral-rich country.

Morales, Bolivia's first Indian leader, said the proposed overhaul "changes a colonial state, changes a neoliberal (economic) model."

But it has deepened ethnic and regional divisions in South America's poorest country and heightened political tensions, with his critics accusing him of unilaterally forcing through his proposed reforms.

It also leaves Morales confronting one of his most serious political crises since taking office in January 2006.