PARIS — France's Cabinet authorized curfews under a state-of-emergency law today in an extraordinary measure to halt the country's worst civil unrest in decades after violence raged for a 12th night.

Local officials "will be able to impose curfews on the areas where this decision applies," President Jacques Chirac said. "It is necessary to accelerate the return to calm," he said.

The decree will become effective at midnight tonight, government spokesman Jean-Francois Cope said. The list of cities and towns where curfews will be authorized were to be decided later today.

The curfews are authorized under a 50-year-old law that allows the declaring of a state of emergency in all or parts of France. The law was originally passed to curb unrest in Algeria during the war there that led to the North African nation's independence from France.

Among other powers, police will be able to conduct raids if they suspect weapons are being stockpiled, said Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy added.

In the 12th night of unrest, rioters in the southern city of Toulouse ordered passengers off a bus and then set it on fire and pelted police with gasoline bombs and rocks overnight Monday and into today. Youths also torched another bus in the northeastern Paris suburb of Stains, national police spokesman Patrick Hamon said.

Nationwide, vandals burned 1,173 cars overnight Monday and into today, compared with 1,408 vehicles a night earlier, police said. A total of 330 people were arrested, down from 395 the night before.

"The intensity of this violence is on the way down," National Police Chief Michel Gaudin said. He said there were "much fewer" attacks on public buildings, and fewer direct clashes between youths and police. He said rioting was reported in 226 towns across France, compared to nearly 300 the night before.

Asked on TF1 television whether the army should be brought in, Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin said "we are not at that point." But "at each step, we will take the necessary measures to re-establish order very quickly throughout France," he said.

The violence started Oct. 27 among youths in a northeastern Paris suburb angry over the accidental deaths of two teenagers, but it has grown into a nationwide insurrection by suburban youths.