In a sharp break from traditonal French government policies, M Sarkozy said that he would take a tough approach to the “hooligans . . . who make life impossible on our council estates”.

He was addressing police officers who have been struggling to contain disturbances in Clichy-sous-Bois, northeast of Paris, after two teenagers died last week.

But M Sarkozy’s visit was ran into controversy when the families of the youths, Ziad Benna, 17, and Bouna Traoré, 15, pulled out of a meeting with him after a police teargas grenade exploded inside a local mosque. Siyakah Traoré, Bouna’s brother, said: “There is no way we’re going to see Sarkozy, who is incompetent. What happened in the mosque is really disrespectful.”

The teenagers were electrocuted after climbing into an electricity substation in Clichy-sous-Bois on Thursday. A friend who survived said that they had been hiding from the police. The authorities said that officers were looking for other youths in connection with a break-in at a building site.

Although Ziad and Bouna had nothing to do with the break-in, they panicked when they saw the youths running to escape arrest, officials said. Their deaths sparked an outbreak of the violence that periodically engulfs the suburbs of French cities, against a backdrop of high employment, a large immigrant population and an underground economy run by drug traffickers.

At least 30 police officers have been injured in clashes with gangs of youths, who have also attacked post office vans, town council offices, fire engines and a police station. One police van was shot at on Saturday. About 70 cars were burnt and 40 alleged rioters have been arrested.

M Sarkozy, who built his popularity by cutting crime figures during his first spell as Interior Minister, from 2002 to 2004, said that seventeen companies of riot police and seven mobile police brigades would be permanently stationed in difficult neighbourhoods, while plainclothes officers would be sent in to identify “gang leaders, drug traffickers and big shots”.

M Sarkozy’s comments stunned left-wing politicians, who called for an orthodox government response, with public money for education, housing and job creation schemes.

Even M Sarkozy’s Cabinet colleague, Azouz Begag, the Minister for Promotion of Equal Opportunities, criticised him for describing violent youths as “scum”.

M Begag said: “You should not tell these youths you’re going to get stuck into them and send in the police. You should try to appease them.”

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