Nikolas Sarkozy, the French Interior Minister, today risked fanning the embers of suburban unrest by ordering immigrants convicted of rioting to be deported without delay.

M Sarkozy, whose fiery rhetoric has been widely blamed for heightening tensions, told prefets - France's regional governors - to expel all convicted foreigners, including those who have residency visas.

He told parliament that 120 non-French teenagers - "not all of whom are here illegally" - had been convicted of involvement in the nightly rampages since October 27.

He said: "I have asked the prefets to deport them from our national territory without delay, including those who have a residency visa."

The poor suburbs and satellite towns at the centre of the ongoing turmoil are predominantly home to immigrant families from France’s former colonies in north and west Africa, including Algeria, Morocco, Mali, Mauritania, Senegal and Tunisia.

Although most of the youths are second or third generation French citizens, born and educated in the country, some are non-French, and have been given residency papers to stay with family members.

M Sarkozy's deportation proposal was attacked as the restoration of the "double jeopardy" law which the Interior Minister overturned three years ago. Under that policy, all convicted foreigners were expelled after serving a jail sentence.

M Sarkozy's comments were followed by a more moderate statement from Jacques Chirac, who promised that the Government will do more to rectify the chronic unemployment and crime that dogs the outskirts of many French cities.

"We will have to draw all the consequences from this crisis, once the time comes and order has been restored, and with a lot of courage and lucidity," said M Chirac, who has been criticised for not saying enough during the violence.

"We need to respond in a strong and quick way to the unquestionable problems that many inhabitants of the deprived neighbourhoods surrounding our cities are facing," the President said, declining to spell out any specific policies.

The Interior Ministry announced today that eight French police officers have been suspended for their role in the alleged beating of a young man during riots in La Courneuve, one of the Parisian suburbs at the heart of the troubles, on November 7.

Two officers are accused of dealing "unwarranted blows" to the teenager, while the remaining six were witnesses to the alleged incident, according to a statement from the ministry.

Last night, France endured its 13th consecutive night of suburban anarchy despite the implementation of night-time curfews in the worst-hit regions.

Although the number of cars burnt- a barometer of the scale of unrest - has subsided in Paris, pockets of protest remain nationwide.

In the northern town of Arras, youths looted and set fire to a furniture and electronics store and an adjacent supermarket. In Grasse, a town in the south, a newspaper warehouse and subway station were torched.

Overnight, youths burnt 482 vehicles, down from 617 on the previous night and 1,173 the night before. Police made 203 arrests, raising the total to 2,033 since the riots began. Michel Gaudin, the national police chief, said this was a "significant decline".

In Paris, where the sale of petrol in canisters has been banned, local officials reported another generally calm night. At the peak of the trouble on Sunday some 1,400 vehicles were burned and 395 people arrested across the country.

"Things have got better," said Bernard Fragneau, prefet for the southwest Essonne region. He noted that car burnings have decreased and said there were no direct clashes between youths and police.

"The arrests are bearing fruit," said Interior Ministry spokesman Franck Louvrier. "It’s clear there has been a significant drop, but we must persevere."

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