French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy told top local officials today he wanted them to visit rough areas like those hit by a recent wave of riots to ensure security measures are taking effect.
Mr Sarkozy told French prefects he wanted them to "reduce the fractures" between the state and society and ensure that violence like the recent three-week wave of riots could not happen again.
Mr Sarkozy used the riots to cement his reputation for being tough on crime ahead of an expected run for the presidency in 2007. He and conservative Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin are likely to be rivals for the post.
The unrest began on October 27th after the accidental deaths of two youths apparently fleeing police but soon grew into protests by poor white youths and youngsters of North African and African origin who said they felt alienated from society.
"I am asking you to go out regularly on the ground, to difficult areas, with your staff to assess the pertinence of the (security) measures in place and their necessary adaptation," Mr Sarkozy told the prefects in a speech.
Mr Sarkozy, whose "zero tolerance" approach to dealing with the riots provoked criticism from the opposition Socialists, wanted the prefects to make sure personally that security measures were taking effect.
"I don't want to hear again that prefects have delegated to someone else...the task of visiting difficult neighbourhoods," he said, adding that he wanted monthly updates from the prefects on their efforts to break up drug trafficking in poor areas.
The riots, France's worst urban violence in almost 40 years, rattled the conservative government and prompted Villepin to invoke a 50-year-old law allowing certain powers, such as the imposition of night curfews.
The unrest was concentrated in suburbs around Paris and other cities where many youths say heavy-handed police tactics provoke violence, although the government praised police handing of the unrest.
Mr Sarkozy looked forward to a brighter future for the suburbs.
"My objective is that five years from now, two policemen can patrol on foot by day or by night in any housing estate without being considered intruders," he said.