* Rare diplomatic spat grows between Rabat, Paris
* Judicial suspension hits penal, civil procedures
* Row follows move to question intelligence chief
* Analysts say UN vote on Western Sahara a factor
(Repeats with no changes to text)
By Aziz El Yaakoubi and John Irish
RABAT/PARIS Feb 27 (Reuters) - Morocco said it had suspended judicial cooperation with France, blocking procedures from prisoner transfers to joint investigations, in a growing diplomatic row with its former colonial ruler over allegations of human rights abuses.
President Francois Hollande spoke to Morocco's king this week to try to calm the rare spat between France and Morocco, an ally which has faced criticism from rights groups over police abuses, press freedom and judicial independence.
French officials appeared surprised at how the row had snowballed. Analysts said Morocco may be trying to pressure Paris before the annual United Nations' vote on the Western Sahara dispute in April.
Rabat on Saturday summoned the French ambassador after French police went to the Moroccan Embassy in Paris seeking to question the head of the domestic intelligence service over torture allegations, following lawsuits filed against him in France by Moroccan activists.
"Given that French police were sent with a judicial notice for a Moroccan official at the ambassador's residence in a provocative manner, it has been decided to suspend all judicial cooperation agreements between the two countries until a review is conducted," Morocco's Justice Ministry said in a statement.
Lawyers and officials said the suspension halts cooperation on penal matters such as joint investigations, prisoner transfers and extraditions. It also blocks civil procedures for dual French-Moroccan nationals, who number almost 700,000, such as marriages, custody of children issues and divorces.
The statement said a Moroccan judge who had been liaising on judicial matters had been recalled from France.
France's foreign minister had earlier tried to end the row.
Laurent Fabius, after speaking to his Moroccan counterpart, said: "We had useful explanations, regretted the incidents that could have taken place and deplored the direction things took. I hope all that will be in the past, if it isn't already."
TORTURE CLAIMS
In 2012, the United Nations said torture against people suspected of national security crimes in Morocco was systematic and urged it to end ill treatment of detainees. U.S.-based Human Rights Watch has urged Morocco to investigate accusations that police tortured pro-democracy activists.
Joseph Breham, a lawyer for one of those who filed a complaint in Paris, said the suspension would block prisoner transfers to France. Several of his clients had been jailed on drug-trafficking charges and had asked for transfers to France after making claims of torture following arrest, he said.
"The Moroccans have realised that prisoners file legal complaints once they get back to France," he said.
But analysts said the diplomatic row may also be linked to the Western Sahara dispute.
One of Africa's oldest territorial feuds, it has been a sensitive issue for Morocco since the United Nations brokered a ceasefire in 1991 that ended a war between the North African kingdom and the Algerian-backed Polisario movement.
The United Nations will vote in April on extending the mandate of a U.N. mission in Western Sahara for another year.
France has long supported Rabat's position on Western Sahara. Last year, Paris pushed the United States to modify a draft resolution that aimed to have U.N. peacekeepers monitor human rights in the disputed territory. The draft had prompted Morocco to cancel joint U.S.-Moroccan military exercises.
Spanish actor Javier Bardem angered Morocco by quoting a French ambassador as saying Paris chose to ignore human rights abuses in Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony that Morocco annexed in 1975.
French newspaper Le Monde quoted Bardem on Feb. 20 as telling a Paris news conference that a French ambassador had told him: "Morocco was a mistress with whom we sleep every night even if we aren't especially in love with her, but that we must defend. In other words, we turn a blind eye."
Foreign Ministry spokesman Roman Nadal admitted for the first time on Wednesday that the actor had met France's U.N. ambassador Gerard Araud in 2011 to discuss Western Sahara, but said: "Our U.N. representative met Javier Bardem at his request in 2011. He did not say what was attributed to him."
(Additional reporting by Chine Labbe; Writing by Patrick Markey; Editing by Janet Lawrence)
((pat.markey@thomsonreuters.com)(+21620349006)(Reuters Messaging: pat.markey.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))
Keywords: MOROCCO FRANCE/
