Mr de Villepin's claim that the policy would help those "most in difficulty" is increasingly undermined by growing opposition from unemployed youths in poor suburbs.Young people in Clichy-sous-Bois, the run-down Paris suburb where last year's riots started, almost unanimously opposed the contract in interviews with the Financial Times this week. Many claimed they would turn down a job if offered one of the new contracts.

Most criticisms focused on the length of the trial period and the added insecurity it would bring. However, their hostility was also tinged with suspicions that it would give company bosses another way to discriminate against racial minorities. "If your head does not please the boss, that's it, you're finished," said Dapton, 21, an unemployed accountancy graduate at Aulnay-sous-Bois. Diabira Adama, 26, an unemployed computer technician queuing at a job centre in Clichy-sous-Bois, said: "It is totally unacceptable . . . it's great they are demonstrating in Paris."