"Greater Paris" may be boon for depressed suburbs

By Sophie Taylor

MONTFERMEIL, France (Reuters) - Bleak tower blocks crammed with decrepit apartments, buildings smeared with graffiti and children playing in potted, garbage-strewn streets.

These are the scenes of some of Paris' rundown suburbs which were rocked four years ago by riots that drew the world's attention to France's disenfranchised youth.

But the government and locals hope that ambitious plans to expand the boundaries of Paris, and link the city's hinterland to a modern transport system will provide a desperately needed economic fillip to some of France's poorest neighbourhoods.

"The more cut off a place is, the more problems it will have," said Xavier Lemoine, mayor of the suburb of Montfermeil to the north east of Paris, which is home to one particularly rundown public housing estate.

"Firms will prefer to hire people who have more chance of arriving on time ... and who will not spend their whole life in public transport only to fall asleep at work," Lemoine added.

The 10-year project, billed as the biggest shake up of the French capital since Baron Haussmann redesigned the city in the 19th century, was to take a step forward late on Tuesday when parliament was to start debating on a law that lays the way for the rail link.

High unemployment, failing schools and rising violence still blight many of France's "banlieues". Most of the overwhelmingly immigrant population grow up isolated from the outside world due to inadequate public transport and struggle to find work.

The Greater Paris project calls for a 130-kilometre (81 mile) train network around the city which would connect the suburbs of Clichy-sous-Bois and Montfermeil to a series of new economic and technology centres.