PARIS, March 18 (Xinhuanet) -- French riot police clashed Saturday afternoon with some demonstrators protesting the controversial First Employment Contract (CPE), leaving 28 arrests and 16 injured, consisting four policemen and 12 demonstrators.

    Police used tear gas at the Nation Square in Paris as some young people threw missiles at police. Windows were broken and a car set on fire.

    Organizers claimed that some 300,000 protested in Paris Saturday afternoon and a million in more than 150 demonstrations nationwide after nationwide demonstrations on Thursday drawing up to half a million university and high-school students.

    Several leaders of the left opposition Socialist Party including Laurent Fabius and Dominique Strauss-Kahn joined the demonstration in Paris or in other cities.

    According to the largest French trade union, one of the major organizer CGT, the demand for withdrawal of the CPE is gathering ever greater force. Seventy percent of the French want it to be withdrawn, particularly among the young people where advocates amount to 80 percent.

    The FIDL high-school students' union vowed a new day of action on Thursday if the government does not back down.

    France's education has been disturbed by the protests that have lasted two weeks, with up to 60 out of the country's 84 universities affected.

    Demonstrators demanded that the government scrap the CPE, which, having been adopted by the French parliament, allows employers to fire without explanation newly hired workers under the age of 26 within two years.

    They said the law infringes workers' rights, making it harder for young people to get long-term employment. French President Jacques Chirac called Friday for dialogue as soon as possible as the protests heated up to violence during recent days.

    French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin said through a nationwide televised broadcast on Sunday that the law would come into effect as planned, but he promised new "guarantees" over training and severance pay.

    France has one of Europe's highest youth unemployment rates, with 23 percent of the country's young adults out of work and about 40 percent in some of the poor high-immigration city suburbs jobless. Enditem