More than 450 police, four times the usual number, patrolled Sydney's streets on Tuesday to prevent a third night of racial violence by youth gangs who have attacked people, smashed cars and hurled rocks at police.
As rain fell on Sydney tonight, there were no reports of trouble as police checked cars at road blocks in suburbs scarred by racial violence in the previous two nights.
The New South Wales (NSW) state parliament was being called into emergency session on Thursday to give police special powers to "lock down" parts of Sydney, Australia's biggest city, to stop the unrest, officials said.
Police will also be allowed to ban alcohol in areas of unrest by shutting down licensed premises and prohibiting anyone from carrying liquor. The state government will also increase the jail term for rioting from five to 15 years and double the penalty for affray, fighting in public, to 10 years.
"These criminals have declared war on our society and we are not going to let them win," NSW premier Morris Iemma said.
"You will not take control of our streets," he said while announcing the special police powers similar to those given during the Sydney 2000 Olympics. Racial violence erupted at Sydney's Cronulla Beach on Sunday when some 5,000 people, some yelling racist chants, attacked youths of Middle Eastern background.
Police said white supremacists incited it. Drunk mobs of youths, some wrapped in Australian flags, said they were defending their beach after lifesavers were attacked.
Yesterday, gangs of youths, mainly of Middle Eastern background, attacked several people with baseball bats, vandalised cars and were involved in rock-throwing skirmishes with police for a second night, officials said.
Prime Minister John Howard called again today for calm and tolerance, but again refused to describe the violence as racist, instead labelling it a law and order issue and "domestic discord", saying Australia was not a racist nation.
The racial violence has prompted criticism of Australia's multi-cultural immigration policy, with commentators saying ethnic differences have been fostered for many years.
Many social and ethnic leaders said the violence was primarily "gang warfare" and not purely race riots and that the youths involved felt economically and socially disadvantaged. But some politicians laid the blame squarely on racism.
"We are just getting a sample of what happened in France a few months ago," said Labor opposition politican Harry Quick.
"We have reached a pressure cooker stage here. People of ethnic minority in Australia are just taking things into their own hands."