Ignoring the government's threat of a curfew, youths rioted for a 12th successive night in France, torching more than 800 vehicles around the country and injuring four police, the Interior Ministry said on Tuesday.

The nightly protests against racism and unemployment dropped markedly in the greater Paris region, where violence had escalated to the point of shooting at police, but continued unabated in other parts of France, a ministry statement showed.

The renewed violence followed a warning by Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin that he would take a firm line against lawbreakers, including reinforcements for police and curfews not seen here since the Algerian war of 1954-1962.

Villepin's cabinet was due to meet on Tuesday to approve the measures. A town east of Paris imposed its own curfew on minors on Monday evening and another to the west of the capital organized citizen patrols to help the police.

"Wherever it is necessary, prefects will be able to impose a curfew," Villepin said, referring to the senior officials responsible for security in departments around the country.

While mayors of riot-hit towns welcomed the tougher line, some asked what another measure announced by Villepin -- extended powers for them -- would actually mean in practice.

"Every time they announce more powers for mayors, they cut the funds," complained Jean-Christophe Lagarde, mayor of the northeastern Paris suburb of Drancy.

Elisabeth Guigou, a Socialist deputy from the northeastern Paris suburbs, said that invoking a curfew law passed during the Algerian war was "not the best reference" for fighting unrest among youths mostly of North African Arab and African origin.

The left-wing daily Liberation recalled Jacques Chirac was elected president in 1995 pledging to repair France's "social fracture" and his government was now imposing curfews. "Chirac's reign is a tragic farce," it wrote in an editorial.

The Interior Ministry said 814 vehicles had been torched by 0300 GMT, compared to 1,408 for the whole previous night. It said it would give full figures later on Tuesday.

The number of injured police officers dropped from 36 on Sunday night to four overnight. Some 143 rioters were detained.

NO TROOPS FOR THE SUBURBS

Villepin said 1,500 police and gendarmes would be brought in to back up the 8,000 officers already deployed in areas hit by unrest. He also promised to accelerate urban renewal programs.

Government spokesman Jean-Francois Cope said: "The absolute priority is to show everyone that public authority must be re-established."

But Villepin dismissed growing calls for army intervention, saying: "We have not reached that point."

The opposition Socialists said Villepin had not done enough to give hope to those people in areas hit by the unrest, which has involved poor whites as well as French-born citizens of Arab or African origin complaining of racism and unemployment.

"Beyond the necessary calls for order, what was missing in the prime minister's address was a social dimension, a message and precise commitments toward the people of these areas in difficulty," the Socialist Party said in a statement.

In Toulouse, youths set fire to a bus and 21 cars, police said. At least two cars were set ablaze near Lille and two more in Strasbourg, Reuters reporters said.

Police said 14 cars were set alight in the Yvelines district west of Paris and 17 in Seine-Saint-Denis north of the capital, home to many Arab and African immigrants where the unrest began.

On Monday, a man died after being beaten on Friday in the northern Paris suburb of Stains.

The conservative government has struggled to formulate a response that could halt the unrest, which was sparked by frustration among ethnic minorities over racism, unemployment and harsh treatment by police.

The violence has prompted warnings that the unrest could damage investment and tourism in France. The U.S. embassy in Paris issued a new warning on Monday to Americans traveling in France to be careful after Sunday night's violence.

PHOTO CAPTION

A car burns near a residential building in Strasbourg's northern suburb of Cronenbourg, November 7, 2005. (Reuters)