Jacques Chirac

Paris, Nov. 2 (Reuters): President Jacques Chirac urged calm and dialogue today after a sixth night of unrest in poor Paris suburbs that has triggered a damaging public row between ministers in France’s conservative government.

Street fighting, sparked by the deaths of two teenagers electrocuted while apparently fleeing police during a local disturbance, spread to other parts of the poor suburbs ringing the capital to the north and the east, police said.

The unrest has highlighted increasingly bitter rivalry between Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin and his deputy Nicolas Sarkozy, the interior minister, ahead of 2007 presidential elections.

“The law must be firmly applied and in a spirit of dialogue and respect,” government spokesman Jean-Francois Cope quoted Chirac as telling the weekly cabinet meeting. “The absence of dialogue and escalation of disrespect would lead to a dangerous situation. There cannot be ‘no-go’ areas in the republic,” Cope said.

Villepin later summoned eight ministers to a special meeting on problem neighbourhoods in an effort to rein in squabbling ministers and deflect Opposition charges of drift.

A heavy police presence kept a tense order in Clichy-sous-Bois as disturbances broke out in previously quiet areas. A total of 34 people were detained by police overnight, Sarkozy said. Villepin met families of the two dead youths yesterday evening along with Sarkozy who is now under heavy fire for his tough line against the rioters.

Squabbling broke out within Villepin's government when equal opportunities minister Azouz Begag openly criticised Sarkozy for calling the protesting youths “scum”.

“I talk with real words,” Sarkozy fired back in an interview in the daily Le Parisien. “When someone shoots at policemen, he’s not just a ‘youth’, he’s a lout, full stop.” He acknowledged on Europe 1 that Begag had not made his job any easier, while the equal opportunities minister complained that Sarkozy never consulted him.