The French government strengthened emergency measures Saturday to ban public gatherings in Paris as youths and police clashed in the second-largest city Lyon.

Calls for "violent actions" in the capital appeared on Internetblogs and sent in text messages to cell phones on Saturday, Paris police said.

"This is not a rumor," said National Police Chief Michel Gaudin. Paris's famous landmarks including the Eiffel Tower were among the possible targets, he said.

Police in the capital imposed curfew starting from Saturday morning to Sunday morning to prevent the country's worst ever suburban unrest from spreading into the city center over the weekend.

More than 2,000 police and gendarmes were deployed in Paris to cope with possible violence, police said.

The ban, which runs from 10 a.m. (0900 GMT) Saturday to 8 a.m. (0700GMT) Sunday, applies to "all meetings likely to start or fueldisorder," police said.

Unrest has dropped in intensity in recent days as the government allowed local authorities to adopt emergency measures such as curfews if necessary but violence and rioting still continued in some cities and saw a slight increase across the country over the weekend.

Some 500 cars were set ablaze Friday night, more than the previous night when 463 cars were burnt, police said.

In the southeastern city of Lyon, regional authorities imposed a weekend curfew, barring youths under 18 from going outside between 10 p.m. (2100 GMT) Saturday to 6 a.m. (0500 GMT) Monday.

A total of 24 cars were set on fire in the city as clashes between police and rioters erupted and officers used teargas to disperse stone-throwing youths in the city centre.

A school was set fire in Carpentras in southern France on Saturday. In the same place, two firebombs were thrown at a mosquethe previous day.

On the outskirts of the city of Toulouse, arsonists burnt an electronics store Saturday night.

More than 7,000 vehicles have been torched and over 2,500 people arrested during the last 16 days of violence, which was sparked on Oct. 27 after the accidental electrocution of two teenagers fleeing police identity check in the northeast of Paris.

Chirac and the government have been heavily criticized over their handling of the rioting.

A demonstration of several hundred people took place in Paris' Latin Quarter Saturday as protesters called for the resignation ofInterior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy who has been accused of inflaming the rioting by calling troublemakers "scum."

Source: Xinhua