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While the French student organisations refused yesterday to discuss with Villepin about a modification of the CPE, the student organisations and the trade unions just want to accept a canceling of the law, heavy clashes between protestors and riot cops errupted in the evening, CET, in Paris and in several other cities in France.

AFP, the official French news agency, reported this..

More violence in Paris as talks planned on jobs law

Violence erupted again during a protest march in central Paris against the French government's youth jobs programme, even as the embattled Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin gave ground by offering open-agenda talks with trade unions and student groups.

The Invalides esplanade -- a much-visited open space by the river Seine not far from the foreign ministry -- was the scene of running battles between riot police and gangs of masked youths who hurled projectiles, smashed shop windows and set fire to cars.

The youths, who appeared not to be part of the main protest march, threw stones and metal bars at firemen called to a put out a blaze in a nearby shop. Police sealed off the Seine bridges and made dozens of arrests.

Clashes between police and protesters also took place in the Mediterranean port of Marseille, the cities of Rennes, Grenoble and Lyon, and the Paris suburbs of Savigny-sur-Orge, Creteil and Rueil-Malmaison.

Altogether some 220,000 high school and university students took part in a fourth day of nationwide demonstrations against the government's contested First Employment Contract (CPE), a slight decline on a week ago, according to government figures.

Protests have repeatedly turned violent, notably on Saturday when a trade union member fell into a coma after being caught in a police baton-charge in the capital.

The latest disturbances came as the first hints of conciliation in the crisis emerged, with Villepin and the main trade unions agreeing to hold talks in Paris Friday.

In a letter the prime minister promised that the agenda of the talks would be "completely open," and in their reply the unions said they "reaffirm their demand for the CPE to be withdrawn before we agree to dialogue or negotiation on employment, job insecurity and the future of the youth."

Villepin also wrote to student leaders asking them to talks at his residence next week, his office said.

The prime minister has come under growing criticism -- even from within his ruling Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) -- for failing to respond to the growing campaign of popular opposition, and Thursday's initiative was the first sign of a search for a compromise.

An open-ended contract that can be terminated within the first two years without justification, the CPE was conceived by Villepin as a tool against France's high youth unemployment rate which is can reach more than 50 percent in the high-immigration suburbs hit by last year's riots.

But it is opposed by an alliance of students, unions and left-wing political parties, who see it as a breach in France's hard-won system of employee protection. They have been demanding its complete withdrawal as a precondition for ending their protests.

A day of nationwide strikes and more demonstrations is planned for Tuesday.

The measure was voted through parliament two weeks ago as part of a wider equal opportunities law, and is now awaiting approval from the Constitutional Council -- the body that rules on the constitutionality of laws -- before coming into force.

Villepin, 52, who was appointed by President Jacques Chirac 10 months ago, has staked his political future on implementing the CPE, and it was still unclear how much he would be willing to compromise.

On Tuesday he told UMP deputies that he would not accept withdrawal or suspension of the contract, nor "emptying it of its essence." However commentators Thursday said he appeared to have come under pressure from Chirac to let out some slack.

Opponents of the CPE say its two most contentious features are the two-year trial period, and the "non-justification" clause which they believe gives employers too free a hand to sack young staff.

A new opinion poll Thursday showed that 66 percent of the public want the CPE withdrawn, a fall of two points on a week ago.

On Wednesday Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy -- Villepin's main political rival -- warned of the climate of lawlessness spreading to the country's high-immigration city suburbs and reigniting the riots that raged for three weeks in November.

For more, detailed and especially independent

informations please check out

English language coverage of the young workers’ revolt in France