Rioters set fire to hundreds of vehicles in an eighth night of unrest in the impoverished suburbs of northeastern Paris as local officials criticised the response of national leaders.
Rioting erupted again late last night despite hopes that festivities ending the fasting month of Ramadan would calm rioters - many of them Muslims of North African origin protesting against race bias they say keeps them in a second-class status.
Police reported fewer clashes than previous nights when police and fire crews were fired upon by some rioters.
But the rioting continued to spread, with firebombings in western Paris suburbs and similar areas near Rouen in northern France, Dijon in the east and Marseille in the south.
Officials in Seine Saint Denis, the worst-hit department located between central Paris and Charles de Gaulle airport, said 187 vehicles had been destroyed there overnight.
Police detained 27 people and reported two injuries.
French media said up to 600 vehicles were destroyed in the whole greater Paris region, including 23 buses at a terminal in Trappes in the southwest near Versailles.
Security officials said the presence of hundreds of riot police had acted as a deterrent, but rioters still set fire to two textile warehouses, a bus depot and a school.
Rioting among young men of North African and black African origin - mostly locally born citizens - began last week after two teenagers of African origin died while fleeing the police.
Prime Minster Dominique De Villepin and Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, whose bitter political rivalry has overshadowed the government's reaction, teamed up in the French Senate yesterday to announce that restoring order was their "absolute priority".
Mr Villepin blamed the riots on gangs he said terrorised residents and sought to keep police out of their districts, and vowed law and order would be restored.
Mr Sarkozy, accused by opponents of inflaming passions with his outspoken attacks on those behind the violence, said 143 people had been detained in the past week for rioting.