MADD asked the Century Council, a nonprofit organization funded by liquor makers, to stop proclaiming it is a partner in MADD's mission and to remove MADD's logo from its Web site and other materials.

MADD said the Century Council has hindered its efforts by opposing state legislation requiring harsher penalties for people convicted of drunken driving for the first time.

It said the Century Council places too much emphasis on so-called hardcore drunken drivers and not enough on confronting the broader problem of all people who drink and drive.

The U.S. made big strides in reducing deaths related to drunken driving from the early 1980s (approx 20,000/year) through the mid-1990s. But since then, alcohol-related car-crash deaths have remained around 13,000 a year, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, or NHTSA.

Three years ago, MADD announced a multifaceted campaign aimed at eventually eliminating drunken driving. The plan included support for research of technology that one day could enable cars to automatically detect if a driver's blood-alcohol level is over the legal limit and, if so, keep the vehicle from starting.

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The Century Council, founded in 1991 to fight drunken driving and underage drinking, said it supports the mandatory use of interlock devices for first offenders with blood-alcohol content of at least 0.15% -- nearly twice the legal limit of 0.08%.

The group said it is neutral on bills targeting lower-level offenders, preferring to leave those matters to a judge.

MADD said it agrees that hardcore drunken drivers -- often defined as those with repeat offenses and very-high blood-alcohol levels -- must be targeted. But it emphasized that many deaths are caused by drivers with no previous arrest record, and by those exhibiting blood-alcohol levels lower than 0.15%.

In 2007, drivers over the legal limit, but below 0.15%, accounted for about a third of all alcohol-related crash deaths in the U.S., according to the NHTSA.