France to deport foreign rioters

Interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy has ordered the expulsion of all foreigners convicted of taking part in the riots that have swept France for 13 nights.

He told parliament 120 foreigners had been found guilty of involvement and would be deported without delay.

Police said overnight violence had fallen significantly - although trouble still flared in more than 100 towns.

The government has declared a state of emergency in Paris and more than 30 other areas to help quell the unrest.

The northern city of Amiens was the first to impose an overnight curfew under the new powers, which came into force at midnight.

The western towns of Rouen, Le Havre and Evreux and the French Riviera region have also said they will implement the measures.

However the Seine-Saint-Denis region north-east of Paris, where the trouble started almost two weeks ago, said it would not impose a curfew after violence diminished for a third night running.

Mr Sarkozy told MPs that non-French nationals - "not all of whom are here illegally" - had been convicted of taking part in the attacks.

"I have asked the prefects to deport them from our national territory without delay, including those who have a residency visa," he said.

Petrol bomb

Senior interior ministry official Claude Gueant said police had seen "a very significant drop" in the intensity of the unrest.

The number of cars set alight across France overnight Tuesday to Wednesday fell to 617, hundreds fewer than the night before.

Some 280 people were arrested and disturbances broke out in 116 areas, half the number affected the preceding night.

However, the authorities in Lyon said public transport would not run after 1800 GMT on Wednesday following a petrol bomb attack on Tuesday.

The areas covered by the emergency powers extend from the English Channel to the Mediterranean, including Paris suburbs and major cities such as Lille, Marseille and Toulouse.

The powers, which can be extended by parliament after 12 days, allow a state of emergency to be declared in defined areas, restricting the movement of people and vehicles.

Police are entitled to carry out house searches and ban public meetings.

Minors are subject to the law between 2200 and 0600 (2100 and 0500 GMT) unless accompanied by an adult, and are also banned from buying petrol.

Nearly three out of four French people support the powers, according to a poll published in the daily Le Parisien newspaper.

But some opposition parties, and the French magistrates association, have described them as a danger to civil liberties.

The far-right French politician Jean-Marie Le Pen told the BBC that rioters should have their French citizenship revoked.

The nightly protests have gripped deprived areas where unemployment is rife and residents complain of racism and discrimination.

The unrest was first sparked by the deaths in the run-down Paris suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois of two youths, who were accidentally electrocuted at an electricity sub-station.

The emergency powers handed to local authorities have been invoked under a 1955 law. This is the first time they have been implemented in mainland France.