Solving some NP-complete problems using split decomposition

We show how to use the split decomposition to solve some NP-hard optimization problems on graphs. We give algorithms for clique problem and domination-type problems. Our main result is an algorithm to compute a coloration of a graph using its split decomposition. Finally we show that the clique-width of a graph is bounded if and only if the clique-width of each representative graph in its split decomposition is bounded.