Chirac promises firm action to quell riots raging across France

FRENCH president Jacques Chirac appealed for calm yesterday and said authorities would use a firm hand to end what he called "a dangerous situation" after Paris suburbs suffered their sixth night of rioting and violence spread across the country.

The riots, sparked by the deaths of two teenagers, have exposed the despair and anger in France's grindingly poor suburbs where unemployment is rife, gangs of drug dealers control tough estates and police hesitate to venture. Terrorism experts warn this makes fertile terrain for Islamic extremists.

Police said as many as 228 cars were torched on Tuesday night throughout France, 180 of them in the greater Paris region. Sixty- two cars were set ablaze in Seine-Saint-Denis, home to many impoverished communities and large numbers of immigrants, mainly of North African origin.

A lorry was set on fire in Sevran and in Tremblay-en-France four post office vehicles were set ablaze.

Police fired rubber bullets at youths in Aulnay-sous-Bois, where gangs hurled stones at a fire station and threw petrol bombs at the town hall. Youths also clashed with riot police in the Val d'Oise, Seine-et-Marne, Hauts-de-Seine and Yvelines regions.

Mr Chirac's statement yesterday was his first on the violent unrest which flared up on Thursday night in the northern suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois when two teenagers were electrocuted while taking refuge in an electricity sub-station. Local people say they were fleeing police, which the authorities deny.

Anger grew when a tear gas canister was hurled into a mosque in Clichy-sous-Bois, apparently by riot police. Hundreds of worshippers fled into the street in panic.

"The smoke spread everywhere. Everyone was coughing, crying. Many fainted, it was really bad. We had elderly people and lots of mothers," a witness named Khatija told the left-wing newspaper Libration.

Opposition leaders have been critical of Mr Chirac and his lieutenant, conservative prime minister Dominique de Villepin, for keeping a low profile during the first five nights of rioting.

Political observers believe their comparative silence was a strategy to tarnish fiercely ambitious interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy, who openly admits his desire to topple either Mr Chirac or Mr de Villepin at presidential elections in 2007.

Mr Sarkozy appears to have badly judged the situation and analysts believe the president is hoping his rival will succeed in digging his own political grave.

His aggressive handling of the crisis, which came just days after he announced plans to deploy hundreds of riot police in tough neighbourhoods to crack down on crime, appears only to have worsened the situation and has been severely criticised even by members of his own party.

Azouz Begag, the equal opportunities minister, castigated Mr Sarkozy for his "warlike language" in which he vowed to rid the suburbs of "louts and scum".

Mr Sarkozy defended his "tell it like it is" language: "When you fire real bullets at police, you're not a 'youth', you're a thug."

The media-hungry Mr Sarkozy has also been accused of trying to capitalise on the situation to win political favour and boost his own visibility ahead of the presidential race.

Mr Begag complained: "I am sorry not to have been included when a difficult dialogue exists with young people. Each time my colleague [Mr Sarkozy] does something in the suburbs, even when it involves equal opportunities, I am never contacted."

The leader of the Socialist opposition, Franois Hollande, also delivered a blistering attack. "Sarkozy extols 'zero tolerance'," he said. "Well, zero tolerance for Sarkozy then. Zero tolerance for verbal provocation, the disappearance of neighbourhood policing and the absence of any preventive policies. In fact the president of the UMP is obsessed only by his own candidature. He is no longer interior minister, but minister for himself."