French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy has said it will take time to resolve the problems underlying eight nights of rioting around Paris.
He said that there were fewer clashes with the police on Thursday night, although
violence has spread to new areas and outside the French capital.
France has been stunned by the rioting in immigrant-dominated areas.
Arson has become a serious problem, with youths burning schools, warehouses and more than 500 vehicles.
Community leaders say they are trying to isolate the troublemakers.
Cars were torched in the eastern city of Dijon on Thursday night, and sporadic
unrest broke out in southern and western France.
Nearly 80 arrests were made in Paris.
The unrest began after teenagers Bouna Traore, aged 15, and Zyed Benna, 17,
were accidentally electrocuted at an electricity sub-station in Clichy-sous-Bois.
Local people say they were fleeing police - a claim the authorities deny. Inquiries are under way.
Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin has pledged to restore order following criticism of the government's failure to end violence.
Hardline comments
Mr Sarkozy said the fact that there had been fewer direct clashes between
youths and police did not mean the disturbances were coming to an end.
"I am aware that the resolution of these problems, which have lain fallow
for 30 years, will take time."
Mr Sarkozy had earlier sparked some criticism with hardline comments saying the government would not allow "troublemakers, a bunch of hoodlums, think they can do whatever they want".
But a political ally of the minister, Eric Raoult, told the BBC that he was not responsible for the riots but was merely speaking the language of the streets.
"He speaks to the people and also to the poor people who don't want more riots. Because it's not the cars of rich people who burn. It's cars of poor people who burn," he said.
The areas affected are poor, largely immigrant communities with high levels of unemployment.
Roaming gangs
Thursday night's incidents occurred in several towns to the north-east and
west of the capital, including Aulnay-sous-Bois.
Most of the attacks took place in the largely immigrant area of Seine-Saint-Denis,
where about 1,300 police had been deployed.
As on previous nights, gangs of youths armed with bricks and sticks roamed the streets of housing estates. The situation had calmed down at dawn.
Outside Paris, as well as the cars set alight in Dijon, unrest flared in
the Rouen area of Normandy and in the Bouches-du-Rhone region near Marseilles
in the south.
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