The French interior minister has warned rioters of stiff jail sentences for arson after the ninth night of violence in African and Arab communities.
Nicolas Sarkozy said setting cars on fire could "cost dear in terms of
sentences" after a night which saw nearly 900 vehicles damaged.
The government was "unanimous about standing firm" in the face of violence, he said after ministers met in Paris.
Unrest began after the deaths of two youths in a rundown suburb of Paris.
Bouna Traore, 15, and Zyed Benna, 17, were accidentally electrocuted at an
electricity sub-station in Clichy-sous-Bois after reportedly fleeing from
police in an incident now being investigated.
Police arrested more than 250 people on Friday night as arsonists attacked
nurseries and a school and unrest spread to Nice, Lille, Marseille and Toulouse.
"The republican state cannot accept violence," Mr Sarkozy said after a meeting of government ministers called by Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin.
The interior minister's description of rioters last week as "scum" (racaille) is said by many to have aggravated the situation - which was further inflamed by reports that a police tear gas grenade had gone off near a mosque.
During Friday night's unrest rioters tended to avoid direct clashes with
police, but arson attacks were widespread:
>Two nurseries, one in Yvelines and another in Bretigny-sur-Orgeand, were
set on fire along with a school in Seine-et-Marne, the French news agency
AFP reports
>A blaze in an underground car park in Suresnes, Hauts-de-Seine, left at
least 36 vehicles destroyed
>An emergency services vehicle was attacked and burnt out in Meaux, Seine-et-Marne
>Several car torchings were reported in the cities of Dijon, Marseille
and Rouen, as were violent attacks in Nice, Lille and Rennes.
Hundreds of people have heard a call for calm at a rally in one of the Paris suburbs worst hit.
The mayor of Aulnay-sous-Bois, Gerard Gaudron, made the appeal to marchers outside a fire station which had come under attack.
But youths at the rally in the suburb's rundown Mitry estate predicted violence
would continue until Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy resigned.
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