French unemployed activists were occupying 26 welfare offices nationwide on Tuesday evening, eight more than on Monday night, France 2 teletext reported.

The occupations, which began last month, are in support of demands for an increase in unemployment benefit.

Police evacuated 100 jobless from a welfare office in Paris earlier in the day after they had occupied the premises for several hours.

In a separate report, the French news agency AFP said a mass protest by unemployed people was planned tomorrow in Paris, and that marches would also be held in a number of towns elsewhere in France.

BBC Monitoring (http://www.monitor.bbc.co.uk), based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.
 

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