French youths clash with police in Paris

PARIS - Around a hundred youths have clashed with French police after setting fire to cars and rubbish bins in a Paris suburb that was the scene of violent riots last November, a local official said.

Seven police officers were slightly injured and six youths were arrested in a neighbourhood of Seine-Saint-Denis in confrontations that started on Tuesday morning local time, according to a security official from the suburb.

The youths began burning cars in reaction to a police operation in which a young man was arrested several hours earlier. Officials said they did not yet know how many cars had been burnt.

There were also incidents in the neighbouring area of Clichy-Sous-Bois, where last year's riots began after two youngsters died while they were apparently fleeing police.

In the three weeks of rioting that followed around France, youths clashed with police in poor suburbs which are home to large immigrant populations.

Some 9,000 cars and several schools were set ablaze and the government was forced to use emergency powers to quell the unrest that was the worst France had seen in nearly 40 years.

The rioters, many of whom where of African or Arab in origin, complained of discrimination, high unemployment and lack of opportunities.

Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy has said the riots showed the immigration system was not working. He proposed a revamp of France's immigration system that has drawn widespread criticism from opposition parties and immigrant groups.

The law, which is due to be debated in the Senate in June, aims to keep unskilled immigrants out and improve integration with language tests.

Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin responded to the violence by proposing a new law earlier this year that he said would help reduce youth unemployment in poor suburbs.

But students and opposition parties were strongly opposed to the jobs measures and organised a series of mass protests that forced Villepin into an embarrassing climbdown over the project in April and raised questions about his future ahead of the 2007 presidential election.

- REUTERS