France plans to lift state of emergency soon

French President Jacques Chirac's office said here on Monday that the president plans to lift the state of emergency imposed early November to tackle the latest urban violence crisis.

Chirac plans to lift the state of emergency this week, more than six weeks earlier than originally planned, his office said.

Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin also proposed to lift the state of emergency on Monday, according to French government officials.

The plan is expected to be approved during a regular Cabinet meeting on Tuesday.

The French government announced the state of emergency on Nov. 8 by invoking the 1955 emergency powers law, which gives local authorities, or prefects, the powers to impose curfews, order house arrests and searches, and ban public gatherings in order to calm down the violence starting in Paris suburbs on Oct. 27, when two teenagers were accidentally electrocuted while hiding in an electrical sub-station to flee a police identity check.

The unrest, which left nearly 12,000 vehicles torched across the country, was seen as France's worst civil unrest since student and worker protests in 1968.

The French parliament then voted to extend the state of emergency for another three months.

On the New Year's Eve, revelers burned 425 vehicles, compared with the 333 torched in year 2004, but there were no major clashes, the French national police chief said on Sunday.

Source: Xinhua