(Updates with court statement)

By Hugh Bronstein

BOGOTA, Aug 1 (Reuters) - Colombian judges rallied around the Supreme Court on Wednesday as the president tried to bypass a ruling he says could derail peace talks with far-right paramilitaries by banning them from running for public office.

The fight between conservative President Alvaro Uribe and the high court threatens to unravel an accord in which 31,000 former paramilitary fighters have turned in their guns in exchange for pardons and the right to hold public office.

The court issued a joint statement with other magistrates telling Uribe to stop second-guessing its decisions after the president accused it of torpedoing the peace deal.

Last month the court decided that demobilized paramilitary fighters must be charged with common crimes like drug trafficking and murder rather than with sedition.

The ruling shook the foundation of the peace deal, which promises that many paramilitaries will face only political charges, which can be pardoned, in connection to their 20-year struggle against left-wing rebels.

Once pardoned, they would be able to run for political office, an avenue that is closed if they have a serious criminal conviction on their records.

If the Supreme Court decision stands, many "paras" have said they will stop cooperating with investigators and halt the turnover of their illegally acquired wealth.

Uribe last week accused the court of ideological bias and of not pulling its weight in the "higher state goal" of peace.

"We object to this kind of questioning of judicial decisions, which can affect the independence of the administration of justice," said the statement signed by the Constitutional Court and other judicial institutions on Wednesday.

Uribe proposed a law allowing former paramilitaries the same political rights as demobilized Marxist guerrillas who have won local and national office. Uribe's bill would apply only to "paras" not charged with atrocities such as massacres.

URIBE'S POPULARITY SLIPS

Uribe's popularity rating has fallen to about 66 percent in recent polls showing he has been bruised by a scandal in which his former security chief and some of his closest allies in Congress are accused of illegally supporting paramilitaries who have grown rich on drug-trafficking and extortion.

"An increasing number of well-informed voters are saying they are concerned that Uribe is trying to take too much control of nonexecutive state institutions, like the courts," said Bogota-based pollster Napoleon Franco.

The "paras" were formed in the 1980s to help cattle ranchers, drug lords and other rich Colombians fight leftist rebels. They soon started exploiting the country's multibillion-dollar cocaine trade and became notorious for massacring peasants suspected of leftist sympathies.

Several former militia fighters say they plan to run in October provincial elections, sparking concern that paramilitaries may not only get away with the crimes they committed, but might end up running parts of the country.

Thousands are killed every year in this war involving rebels, paramilitaries and a slew of cocaine-smuggling gangs.

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