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ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigerian Vice President Goodluck Jonathan can continue to exercise executive powers, including signing bills into law, in the absence of the country's ill president, a government official said on Wednesday.

A federal court ruled last week that Jonathan could perform all the executive duties for President Umaru Yar'Adua without an official transfer of powers but could not be "acting president."

In his first use of executive power, Jonathan on Tuesday sent soldiers and security chiefs to the central city of Jos to stop four days of clashes between Muslim and Christian gangs that have killed around 200.

Yar'Adua has not formally transferred power to his deputy since leaving Nigeria nearly two months ago to receive medical treatment for a heart ailment in hospital in Saudi Arabia.

Before Tuesday's military order, the vice president had only represented Yar'Adua at cabinet meetings and official functions.

"As long as the court ruling subsists, the vice president will continue to exercise executive powers. He can sign the budget or the appropriations bill and letters that ought to be signed by Mr. President," said the official, who declined to be identified.

Analysts viewed Jonathan's military order more as a necessity to prevent a humanitarian crisis than as a move to declare his new powers.