Police and demonstrators clashed outside the Ecole Normale Superieure, the teachers' training college in Paris, as the wave of nationwide protests over unemployment gathers force.

The college has been occupied since Wednesday by unemployed people and students.

Increasing numbers of people took to the streets on Saturday and groups of unemployed activists have staged sit-ins at various high-profile organisations.

There were further protests in Marseille, Grenoble, Rouen, Perpignan and Clermont-Ferrand.

Government offices, unemployment agencies and, most recently, two elite French schools, have been occupied by protesters trying to secure improved benefits from the government, stuck in a spending crunch.

The marchers have centred their demands on increased minimum benefits, something the government has said it would consider but, in any case, could not offer before 1999.

Demonstrators began occupying the Montmartre branch of Electricite de France (EDF) on Thursday and were still there on Saturday. They were demanding an immediate moratorium to gas and electricity cutoffs for those without jobs who cannot pay their bills.

EDF branch officials spent the night there with them, said Hubert Caudrillier, a member of a support group for the protesters.

The peaceful sit-in did not disrupt work at the agency, which was open to the public as usual on Friday.

Two elite Paris schools were among the latest targets of protesters - the Ecole Normale Superieure and the top school for political science, known as Sciences Po, a training ground for the nation's elite.

Lionel Jospin - the French Prime Minister under attack

Marches are being held around France that could prove a test of support for Socialist Prime Minister Lionel Jospin in his stand-off with the jobless.

The Paris march from the Place de la Republic to the Place de la Nation was not supported by two major unions, the Workers Force and the French Democratic Labour Confederation.

They said they will would not take part in the marches. Both have criticized what they allege is manipulation of the jobless activists by the rival Communist-backed General Workers Confederation, the CGT.

Jospin, whose prime campaign promise was to reduce unemployment - now at 12.4% - is being squeezed between jobless protesters and France's commitment to qualify for the single European currency, the Euro, due to be phased in next year.

Recent polls indicated that most of the French support the protesters, and that Jospin's approval rating fell six points. But Jospin still enjoys a 51% rating, according to the latest poll in the weekly newspapaper Le Point.
 

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