EPINAY-SUR-SEINE, France (Reuters) - Violence erupted again in poor suburbs of Paris where youths torched buildings and dozens of cars and sporadic unrest spread in the early hours of Saturday to at least three other French cities. In a potentially worrying development for Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin's beleaguered government, police said more cars were set alight outside the greater Paris area than in the capital's suburbs, the epicenter of riots for more than a week."The general impression is that the situation in the greater Paris area is the same as last night but there are some scattered incidents elsewhere," a police official told Reuters.
Rioting by youths, many of whom are Muslims of North African and black African origin, has partly been stoked by their frustration at high unemployment and the perception they lack economic opportunities.
Out of a total of 152 vehicles reported burned nationally, less than half were in the greater Paris region, with about a dozen or more cars set alight in each of Strasbourg, in east of France, Rennes in the west, and Toulouse in southwestern France. Police said minor incidents were reported in provinces elsewhere in the country but were inclined to blame such disturbances on copy-cat violence before the weekend.
Rioters in Paris suburbs appeared more inclined to harass police than clash with them head on, an official said. Firemen rushed to put out blazes in the Paris suburb of Val d'Oise after 10 cars and two buildings, one a bakery, were set alight late on Friday, while others in Seine-Saint-Denis battled to extinguish fires at two warehouses.
POLICE PRESENCE
The latest outbreak of violence came despite a high-profile police presence. About 1,300 officers were deployed in Seine-Saint-Denis, the area worst hit in the disturbances and where the violence first began last week after two teenagers of African origin died while fleeing police. More officers patrolled other suburbs where unrest had broken out, national police said, adding that the units were more mobile than previously.
The violence that began in Seine-Saint-Denis has escalated this week and spread to a few other towns in France even before Saturday -- Rouen in northern France, Dijon in the east and Marseille in the south were all affected overnight between Thursday and Friday. This has put mounting pressure on the government to restore order without alienating minority and underprivileged groups but Villepin's calls for calm have so far fallen on deaf ears. Religious leaders will lend their support to government efforts to cool tensions with Catholic, Protestant and Muslim leaders planning a silent march on Saturday in Aulnay-sous-Bois, one of the violence-hit suburbs.
Squabbling within the government about how to tackle the unrest has now been papered over, with Villepin and his bitter political rival, Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, joining forces to stress the need to balance firmness and justice. Villepin met about 15 young people from riot-hit Paris suburbs late on Friday to discuss possible ways to restore calm.
"I think he appreciated this meeting and wanted to learn things. It was a very good initiative, he is really looking to solve the problems," Anyss, an 18-year-old in his final year of high school in Seine-Saint-Denis, said after the meeting.
However, the opposition remained critical, with the Socialists attacking the government's response. "Your government bears part of the responsibility for these events. It is now up to you to take full stock of the crisis," Socialist leaders said in letter to Villepin on Thursday.