French President Nicolas Sarkozy has insisted he will press ahead with pension reforms despite a gathering momentum of nationwide strike. Mr Sarkozy says reform is essential and France is committed to it. But with the Senate due for a final vote this week, protests are planned in more than 200 towns and cities. The French government wants to raise the retirement age from 60 to 62 gradually and the full state pension age from 65 to 67. Meanwhile, French youths battled riot police, truckers blocked roads, as they joined the strike, and filling stations ran dry as protests escalated. Police fired tear gas and rubber bullets at youths who set a car on fire, smashed bus stops and hurled rocks outside a school in Nanterre, near Paris. The interior ministry said police arrested 196 rioters in various towns, and that four police officers had been injured in the scuffles. Nearly 300 schools were disrupted by protests.