300 held as riots rock France
17/03/2006 15:08 - (SA)
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Paris - French authorities announced the arrest of 300 people on Friday, after street protests over youth job reforms turned violent overnight.

The threat of more unrest now hangs over marches planned for the weekend.

French president Jacques Chirac said the government was "open to dialogue" and called for negotiations to "begin as soon as possible". The violence was the worst since the protests began.

In central Paris, 187 people were arrested as gangs of youths - described as outside troublemakers - overturned cars and threw petrol bombs at police, who repelled them with tear gas and water cannons.

Police said 46 officers were injured, including 11 who were hospitalised, in clashes in the capital, and several officers were hurt in the northern city of Rennes, where police made 19 arrests.

Between 250 000 and half-a-million people demonstrated in 80 French towns and cities on Thursday, in a show of force over the new contract, which is opposed by students, unions, the left-wing opposition and two-thirds of the public.

Chirac calls for calm and respect

Chirac repeated his defence of the First Employment Contract (CPE) saying it was an "important element" in fighting youth unemployment.

He called for Saturday's protest marches to be held in an atmosphere of "calm and respect".

Interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy blamed Thursday's violence on "hooligans" from the far-left and far-right, as well as young delinquents from the Paris suburbs, who he said had infiltrated the march.

Several hundred people were involved in the fighting, which broke out on the Place de la Sorbonne after the end of a major student demonstration in the Latin Quarter, which drew tens of thousands of protestors.

Cafes were vandalised and a bookshop went up in flames, as tear gas fumes filled the air, with calm returning early on Friday.

"There were a few hundred delinquents out looking for a fight," Sarkozy said, after meeting police and firefighters in Paris overnight.

"Among them were elements of the extreme left and extreme right, hooligans, and thugs from a number of neighbourhoods," he said.

Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, who championed the CPE as a key tool to encourage companies to hire more young people, faces the most serious test of his premiership as opposition to the scheme continues to grow.