OUTRAGE: Residents holding pictures of the two teenagers who died when their motorcycle collided with a police car in Villiers-le-Bel. -- PHOTO: AFP

Back from a state visit to China, Mr Sarkozy visited a police chief seriously injured in the country's worst troubles since nationwide riots in 2005 before heading into emergency talks with his ministers.

'Opening fire at officials is completely unacceptable,' Mr Sarkozy warned, accusing the rioters of 'attempted murder' and promising that 'those who take it into their hands to shoot at officials will find themselves in court'.

Ahead of a special security meeting with his ministers, Mr Sarkozy yesterday met the families of the two teenagers who died on Sunday when their motorcycle collided with a police car. Their deaths triggered the violence.

An uneasy calm returned to the northern suburbs of Paris yesterday, but government critics warned that the country's densely packed housing projects remained powder kegs that could still explode in a replay of the extended violence two years ago.

Scattered disturbances were reported overnight in the southern city of Toulouse, where a library and several police cars were set on fire.

RELATED LINKS  RIOTS IN THE SUBURBS

But no fires or shooting were reported overnight in Villiers-le-Bel, a town of 27,000 people 17km north of Paris, where the rioting broke out on Sunday following the deaths of Moshin Cehhouli, 15, and Lakami Samoura, 16.

The backgrounds of the teenagers are not known, but the population of the housing projects in which they lived is a mix of Arabs and blacks from former French colonies in the Caribbean and Africa.

The riots, in which young men threw rocks and set buildings alight, injured more than 100 police officers, six of them seriously. Some 40 people were arrested.

The intensity of the violence was unprecedented. In one case, an officer was shot in the shoulder by pellets from a high-calibre hunting firearm that pierced his body armour. Another lost an eye.

In a massive show of strength, the Interior Ministry deployed some 1,000 national riot police in the town to maintain order.

The riots have revived criticism of France's treatment of its troubled cites - the densely populated apartment blocs that have become depressed ghettos for many immigrant families from Africa, Turkey and Arab countries.

Many experts say successive right-wing governments have over-emphasised law enforcement over community relations, planting the seeds for mistrust between the public and the police.

But Interior Minister Michelle Alliot-Marie rejected the often-proposed idea of requiring experienced officers to walk neighbourhood beats in order to cultivate better rapport with residents.

'That is the job of the associations,' she told French TV. 'The job of the police is to fight crime.'

Mr Sarkozy campaigned on a law-and-order platform of zero tolerance for repeat criminals and penalties for the parents of juvenile offenders.

Critics said he appealed to far-right-wing voters at the expense of the troubled ethnic ghettos.

'The fire was smouldering for 25 years but Sarkozy threw oil on the coals with his warlike rhetoric,' said Mr Azouz Begag, the former equal opportunities minister under the previous right-wing government.

There is little disagreement in France that the ghettos have become social prisons for many immigrant families who cannot afford to move elsewhere to find better schools or jobs.

The jobless rate in Villiers-le-Bel, for example, is 19per cent, and an estimated quarter of its young people are unemployed. It is one of the poorest towns in France. The average household income is just 1,000 euros (S$2,135) a month.

Social workers and politicians say many of these young people are alienated from French society.

'Our only weapon is to mobilise all those who can open up a dialogue,' said Mr Manuel Valls, the mayor of Evry, another ethnically mixed suburb south of Paris.

'The problem is finding the right people to have a dialogue with. It's not those people who are rioting.'

An Islamic association in Villiers-le-Bel offers annual conferences on parenting and development, sometimes in partnership with other religious groups.

But community groups say many young people remain alienated and hostile to any symbol of state authority.

'They don't have a political awareness outside of a sense of injustice,' said anthropologist Dounia Bouzar in an interview with the newspaper La Croix.

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ADDITIONAL INFORMATION FROM AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, REUTERS