French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin has unveiled social and economic measures aimed at improving conditions in France's tough, low-income neighbourhoods.
The initiatives aim to reduce chronically high unemployment in those suburbs, provide better education and address entrenched racism.
Mr de Villepin outlined them to the French parliament the same day the government approved powers to declare a state of emergency in specified regions of the country.
Police said 1,173 vehicles were burnt and 330 people arrested overnight as the country experienced its 12th successive night of violence.
Twelve police officers were slightly injured, mainly by thrown projectiles. Some were the target of people firing shotguns, though none was hit. A dozen buildings were burned by arsonists.
The spread of the unrest is undermining investor confidence in the euro, which dipped to a two-year low against the dollar today.
The cabinet earlier approved the imposition of curfews to try quell the rioting.
'Wherever it is necessary, prefects will be able to impose a curfew,' Mr de Villepin said, referring to local officials responsible for security.
Mr de Villepin had warned on French television last night that he would take a tough stance against lawbreakers, including curfews which have not been seen in France since the 1954-1962 Algerian War.
He also said that 1,500 police and gendarmes would be brought in to back up the 8,000 officers already deployed in areas hit by unrest.
France's conservative government has been criticised by the main opposition Socialists, who say that not enough has been done to repair social fractures in areas hit by the unrest.
The rioting has involved poor whites as well as French-born citizens of Arab or African origin complaining of racism and unemployment.
Disturbances were reported in suburban Paris as well as in Lille, Strasbourg and Toulouse last night.
Meanwhile, Belgian authorities are playing down the extent of the violence in Brussels, where five cars were set alight overnight.
There were also minor incidents of arson in the northern town of Sint Niklaas and the eastern city of Liege.
Officials say the incidents appear to be an imitation of the violence in France.
