Le Pen blames immigrants for riots

Paris: French far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen has blamed the rioting, which has spread across the country, on massive immigration into France, and criticised the government response as insufficient.

"The riots result from massive, uncontrolled immigration from the Third World. We knew it was a global time bomb," he said on the private radio station RTL1 on Monday.

France has been rocked by two weeks of car-burnings, arson attacks and rioting carried out mostly by young Arab and black residents of poor suburbs.

Le Pen criticised government efforts to address such concerns as "not corresponding to the real problem."

However the leader of France's National Front party said he supported the introduction of emergency measures, which allow municipalities hit by violence to impose curfews.

Last week Le Pen called the rioting the "warning signs of civil war."