France imposed emergency measures in 38 urban zones, towns and cities including Paris today after youths threw firebombs at police and torched hundreds of cars in a 13th night of violence.
Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin published a decree invoking a 50-year-old law that gives senior government officials the power to impose curfews, although official figures showed a sharp drop in unrest.
Police said 617 vehicles were set ablaze across the country overnight, about half the number the night before.
It was not immediately clear whether the fall was due to the announcement of the measures or signalled the heat had gone out of the unrest by youngsters protesting against racism, police treatment and poor job prospects.
France's Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin has ordered in an extra 1,500 police
Major cities covered by emergency powers include Marseille, Strasbourg, Lyon and Toulouse, as well as the suburbs of Paris where rioting began on October 27th after the deaths of two youths who were accidentally electrocuted.
Mr de Villepin has ordered in an extra 1,500 police to back up the 8,000 officers already deployed to combat the most serious public disorder since protests in May 1968. The number of arrests rose to 204 from 151 the previous night.
Fears of riots erupting in other European countries have helped push down the value of the euro. French officials are also worried investment and tourism will be hit by the violence, which has put pressure on Mr de Villepin and President Jacques Chirac.
"The prime minister seems to be losing his cool," Le Mondenewspaper wrote in an unusually harsh editorial. It said that evoking laws dating to France's colonial era showed Villepin "does not have the nerves that a statesman needs".
Youths set a bus ablaze overnight near the southwestern city of Bordeaux and isolated acts of violence broke out in several French towns, including Amiens in the north.
Officials slapped a curfew on unaccompanied youths until 6am and banned the purchase of fuel in an effort to stamp out the production of firebombs.
Youths set fire to vehicles in several cities in Belgium for the third night last night in what officials say appeared to be an imitation of violence in France.
A car, a bus and a truck went up in flames in the port city of Antwerp, while a car was set ablaze in Ghent. Another car was torched in Lokeren, a town located between Ghent and Antwerp.
Agencies