ALGIERS, Feb 12 (Reuters) - Algeria plans to ask Libya for information about 54 Algerians held in Libyan prisons including men on death row and convicts pardoned years ago but not freed, the official Algerian APS news agency reported on Tuesday.

Official media in Arab and African countries do not often publish reports on alleged human rights failings involving their nationals in Libya, currently serving a two-year term on the U.N. Security Council.

The agency said Algeria's government-backed National Consultative Commission for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, responding to requests from the prisoners' families, had asked the foreign ministry to pursue the matter.

The two nations have cordial diplomatic relations but no extradition treaty. APS said the 54 Algerians in Libyan jails had the right to consular help from the Algerian diplomatic service.

A report on the 54, most of them detained for drugs offences and theft, will be presented to President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, the agency said without elaborating.

Eight had been condemned to death, 22 to life imprisonment, five to amputation of the hand, and 19 had been waiting five years for their trials to begin, it said. Amputation of the hand is a punishment for theft in Libya.

"Some obtained a pardon from the Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi years ago but have not yet been released," the agency said. (Reporting by William Maclean, editing by Tim Pearce)

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