Hundreds of thousands of people gather on the Avenue Champs-Elysees on the New Year's Eve. And some 25,000 policemen were deployed in France to ensure the security(Xinhua Photo)

(Xinhua Photo)

     PARIS, Dec. 31 (Xinhuanet) -- Some 25,000 policemen were deployed in France to ensure the security of the New Year's Eve, according to figures released by French National Police Saturday.

    According to the police, violence and car burning on Dec. 31 in France has become a macabre and unique tradition in Europe in recent years.

    The French authorities fear that youths in poor suburbs may use the festivities to resume urban violence.

    On the New Year's eve, 4,500 police and paramilitary gendarmes, backed by helicopters, will patrol in the French capital of Paris under strict orders to "prevent and repress any acts of violence".

    Sales of petrol in jerrycans have been banned since Christmas in several parts of the country over the end-of-year period, and will be banned in Paris from Friday.

    The Paris region where hundreds of thousands of people gather on the New Year's Eve (500,000 on the eve of 2005), especially on the Avenue Champs-Elysees, will be closely watched.

    Public transport in the Paris region will be highly supervised to follow traveling of potential trouble makers towards Paris or between sensitive departments.

    Identity checks or arrests of offenders will be made wherever necessary in the Paris region, which will be under increased surveillance by hundreds of video cameras installed permanently in subways or in the streets, according to the police.

    A state of emergency imposed in response to a recent rioting, allowing local governors to declare curfews and giving wider powers to the police, remains in place until February. Enditem