Police and youths clashed in a fourth night of rioting in a northeastern suburb of Paris ahead of a morning visit by Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy yesterday.

Groups of young people hurled rocks and set fire to cars during the night, television pictures showed. LCI television said six police officers were hurt and 11 people were arrested.

The violence began four days ago among residents of Clichy-sous-Bois, which has a large immigrant population, over the deaths of two teenagers believed to be of African origin that were electrocuted while fleeing police.

Sixteen people were injured in violence in the suburb on Friday and hundreds of residents marched silently on Saturday to appeal for calm and pay their respects to the two teenagers.

Many northeastern suburbs, where immigrants and families from poor backgrounds live in Soviet-style housing estates, have become notorious for youth violence.

In June, an 11-year-old boy was killed by a stray bullet in the northern area of La Courneuve. The eastern suburb of Vitry-sur-Seine made headlines in 2002 when a 17-year-old girl was set alight by an 18-year-old boy whose friends stood nearby.

The latest riots come just days after Sarkozy launched a new crime offensive, ordering specially trained police to tackle 25 neighborhoods in cities throughout France.

Sarkozy visited the prefecture of Seine-Saint-Denis, which also oversees Clichy-sous-Bois, yesterday morning amid criticism that his policies have increased tensions in tough neighborhoods.

He also met police officers and firemen, as well as the families of the two young men.

Laurent Fabius, a former Socialist prime minister and potential presidential candidate in 2007, said the violence marked a failure for Sarkozy's policies and mocked his frequent visits to violent areas.

Presidential hopeful Sarkozy, whose law and order policies have been criticized by human rights groups, made his name by cutting crime figures during his first stint as interior minister from 2002 to 2004.

(China Daily November 1, 2005)