Sixteen policemen were injured, one seriously, in violent protests that erupted Thursday near the Nice conference center where European leaders were assembling for pre-summit talks.
Anti-globalization campaigners from European countries and Basque and Corsican nationalists were confronting police in a series of street-battles as leaders from 29 nations met.
After an earlier peaceful demonstration dispersed, groups of young men and women -- many with their faces masked -- flung bottles and paving stones at riot-police who responded with rounds of tear-gas.
Rioters set fire to a bank in a street leading to the Acropolis conference center, smashed shop-windows and looted office equipment.
The EU summit is to officially open later Thursday.
On Wednesday around 50,000 trade unionists and other protestors from across Europe gathered in Nice to press demands for EU leaders to improve working and social standards in the 15-nation union -- NICE, France (AFP)
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