PARIS, Nov 8: The French government on Tuesday approved giving curfew powers to regional authorities to stem the worst urban violence the country has seen in nearly four decades, Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy said after a cabinet meeting.

The decision — taken at a cabinet meeting chaired by President Jacques Chirac — would define the areas where the powers would be applied, according to officials.

The measure will also allow police to carry out raids when they suspect weapons are being stored in the poor city suburbs that have been at the centre of the unrest, Mr Sarkozy said.

“We will watch how events develop to see how it might be applied in a targeted way on an area of the country,” he said, stressing that it was a sign of the government’s “firmness, coolness and level-headedness.”

The interior minister was to meet top regional authorities later on Tuesday to discuss how the decision would be implemented.

Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin told national television late on Monday that the curfew powers would be invoked under a 50-year-old law first brought in as an unsuccessful attempt to quell an insurrection in Algeria, at a time when the north African country was a French colony.

Mr Villepin said authorities would be able to impose them in areas “where necessary” to restrict the movement of people and vehicles and to set up perimeters around certain trouble spots.—AFP