President Jacques Chirac said tonight the French government would remain firm in its response to more than two weeks of violence which had shown there was a deep malaise in the country.
Mr Chirac said in a nationwide television address the main priority was to end the worst civil unrest in France for nearly 40 years.
"These events bear witness to a deep malaise," said Mr Chirac. "We will respond by being firm, by being fair and by being faithful to the values of France."
Youths in run-down areas have staged 18 consecutive nights of violent protests against what they say is racism, poor job prospects and a sense of exclusion from mainstream society.
Mr Chirac said France would help young people find work. "To help young people, especially young people in difficulty, to get employment I've decided to create a voluntary task force combining support and training," said Mr Chirac. He said the scheme would help 50,000 young people in 2007.
France must also reinforce its struggle against illegal immigration and people trafficking, said Mr Chirac, calling it a modern form of slavery.
Mr Chirac said everyone should have the chance to share in the benefits of French society and that discrimination sapped the foundations of the republic.
Disturbances erupted with the deaths on October 27th of two youths apparently fleeing police, but grew into a wider protest by youths of African and North African origin at racism, poor job prospects and their sense of exclusion from French society.
Jacques Chirac
Meanwhile the French cabinet has agreed to ask parliament for a three-month extension to emergency powers.
The government is expected to introduce the measure to parliament tomorrow and should secure a comfortable majority.
"This is a protective and precautionary measure," government spokesman Jean-Francois Cope quoted Mr Chirac as telling a special cabinet meeting called to discuss the measure earlier.
"It is a measure necessary to give law enforcement all the means they need to bring a permanent return to calm ... naturally this is a strictly temporary measure which will only apply where it is strictly necessary and with the full agreement of local elected officials," Mr Chirac was quoted as saying.
On November 8th the government of Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin revived a 50-year-old colonial-era law to grant prefects, the state's top local officials, broad powers to impose curfews and other restrictions on designated areas.
The conservative government decree named 38 towns, cities and urban areas around France, including the capital Paris. However, few prefects have made use of the new powers.
It was unclear how the substantial extension to the life of the emergency powers would be greeted by the opposition Socialists, whose criticism has been muted because the party invoked the same 1955 law when in government in the 1980s.
Some local mayors have already criticised the measure as an overreaction and as potentially inflammatory.
The disturbances, the worst in France since student riots in 1968, have sparked a debate on the integration of immigrants and triggered copycat violence in some EU neighbours.