PARIS: France’s interior minister and presidential frontrunner Nicolas Sarkozy stood accused by top judges yesterday of undermining the work of the judiciary after he accused courts in a riot-hit Paris suburb of being soft on crime.

In an unprecedented move, the head of the Cour de Cassation, France’s top court of appeal, urged President Jacques Chirac to bring his tough-talking interior minister back into line.

Judge Guy Canivet said he had requested an audience with Chirac, as "guarantor of the independence of the judiciary, to expose the seriousness of these repeated attacks on the separation of powers laid out under the Constitution."

He received immediate backing from the head of the Paris court of appeal, Renaud Chazal de Mauriac, who accused Sarkozy of "stigmatising the judiciary" with "reductive, shock arguments".

The uproar surrounds comments in which the centre-right minister accused the courts in Seine-Saint-Denis, a crime flashpoint north of Paris where last year’s riots first erupted, of failing to jail enough young offenders.

The High Council of the Magistrature (CSM), which oversees the functioning of the judiciary, said it had already written to Chirac in protest over earlier, similar remarks by the interior minister.

France’s troubled suburbs were thrown back under the spotlight on Tuesday when two riot police officers were ambushed and seriously injured by a mob of youths on a flashpoint housing project south of Paris.

The attack – the most serious such incident since last November’s riots – coincided with the leak of a letter sent to Sarkozy by the governor of Seine-Seint-Denis, warning of an alarming rise in violent crime in the area.

Forced onto the defensive, Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin summoned an emergency meeting with Sarkozy and other top ministers, afterwards reaffirming his confidence in the work of judges - and his determination to fight crime.

"Everyone knows the commitment of local elected officials, prefects, magistrates, law enforcement officials and crime prevention workers across the country," Villepin said in a statement.

"No act of violence must go unpunished in our country," he added, offering his sympathy to the two officers wounded on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the left-wing opposition rounded on Sarkozy, with a spokesman for the Socialist presidential frontrunner Segolene Royal describing Sarkozy as a "dangerous anti-republican" who "blames the judges for his own failures".

"For a minister of state to attack another state institution in this way, is the sign of something very wrong at the head of the state," added the head of the Socialist group in the National Assembly, Jean-Marc Ayrault.

Sarkozy has built his image around a tough line on immigration and crime – a leading issue in the 2002 presidential campaign and one again set to top the agenda in next year’s contest to succeed Chirac.

But the Seine-Saint-Denis prefect’s letter, published earlier this week, has sparked heated debate about his anti-crime policies, which have seen thousands of riot police deployed to troubled suburban estates.

Critics say his actions have failed to drive down crime while fuelling some of the tensions that boiled over with last year’s riots.

Facing a barrage of media and opposition criticism, Sarkozy lashed out on Wednesday at the courts in Seine-Saint-Denis, accusing them of "abdicating" their responsibilities.

"I would like to know how we are supposed to prevent a criminal from offending again if we do not have the courage to put them in prison," he asked.

"Since the start of the start of the year, the number of people imprisoned in the department (of Seine-Saint-Denis) has fallen 15.5%, even as delinquents grow more and more violent." – AFP