Protests have been staged across France against French president-elect Nicolas Sarkozy as he returns from a post-election vacation.

Protestors have clashed with police and burned at least 730 cars in French cities. At least seventy-eight people have been injured during the violent clashes with police.

Hundreds of angry students at Sorbonne University in the capital Paris cancelled their classes in opposition to the new president, and French police is said to have arrested 592 people.

Paris and other cities of France have been a scene of violent protests since Sunday after the right-winger candidate Nicholas Sarkozy's beat Socialist Segolene Royal in the run-off vote.

PR/RE