France boosts security for World Cup final night

PARIS, July 7 (Reuters) Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy said he had ordered some 4,000 extra police onto French streets for Sunday to snuff out any disorder linked to the World Cup final between France and Italy.

Sarkozy said he had told police chiefs to take a firm line with any troublemakers attempting to mug revellers or those out watching Sunday night's final. The match, in Berlin, is to be broadcast in public on giant screens in major French cities.

''There are specific orders to anticipate as much as possible the movement of gangs, so they can be detained before they melt into the crowds of supporters,'' Sarkozy said.

An estimated 500,000 people poured onto the streets of the French capital on Wednesday after the national team clinched a place in the final by defeating Portugal.

Most flocked to the Champs Elysees in central Paris, which hosted around 1.5 million revellers when the country won its first World Cup in 1998.

Wednesday's celebrations were marred by the deaths of four people in separate incidents around the country and 350 people were arrested, the Interior Ministry said.

It said the same policing arrangements would be put in place next Friday to ensure calm on the Bastille Day national holiday.

REUTERS SY PM2306