French police bolster security for New Year 's Eve

France is mobilising 35,000 police for duty on New Year's Eve, some 7,000 more than last year, in a bid to limit any outbursts of urban violence, Interior Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said yesterday.

Cars are regularly torched across France on December 31, especially in poor suburbs, and the French government is anxious to prevent any flare-ups that could spark the sort of rioting that shook the country in 2005.

"Sadly for several years there have always been problems on December 31 and as a result we will pay special attention to certain places in the Paris region, and also in the provinces," Ms Alliot-Marie said after discussions with other ministers.

"Things are being done to ensure there is no provocation," she told journalists after the ministerial talks.

France was alarmed by the recent rioting in Athens, fearing that the economic downturn might also fuel public discontent back home and lead to a repeat of the 2005 unrest that caused widespread damage in many French suburbs.

The French police are also on guard against possible terrorist attacks.

Five sticks of dynamite were left in a Paris department store just before Christmas by a group demanding the withdrawal of French troops from Afghanistan.