The French government failed on Monday to convince trade unions to accept plans to privatise a ferry company and halt protests that have blocked the southern port of Marseille and caused unrest in Corsica.
Strike action was still heavily disrupting activity at Marseille port after a week of protests, but strikers have temporarily lifted blockades of ports on the Mediterranean island of Corsica so thousands of stranded tourists can leave.
Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin sent Transport Minister Dominique Perben and Finance Minister Thierry Breton to Marseille to try to convince unions leaders that the government plan is the only way to save loss-making ferry operator SNCM.
After three hours of talks, they had failed to reach a deal and agreed to meet again on Wednesday.
"Still no solution has been provided to the SNCM problem," Alain Mosconi, an official from Corsican workers' STC union, told reporters. "The public entity should remain public."
Breton told France 2 television earlier that the conservative government would do all it could to save SNCM but it could soon go bankrupt if nothing was done.
"There is a race on here between the risk of bankruptcy and the opportunity to build the future," Perben told France Info radio before the meeting.
SNCM staff are angry over sell-off plans they say could lead to the loss of 400 jobs and have gone on strike in protest.
Workers continued to strike in sympathy at the Marseille port. Striking dockers prevented tankers from loading and discharging oil from the nearby Fos-Lavera oil terminal, home to a cluster of refineries.
The crisis has ignited nationalist sentiment in Corsica, which is served by SNCM, but there were no reports of any new violence overnight. A rocket attack on a top French government official's headquarters on Corsica last week deepened the government's fears it could face a long and damaging political crisis.
Riot police intervened to reopen the blocked port of Ajaccio on Saturday to allow in food and medical supplies and let the first tourists leave. Port authorities said all holidaymakers should be able to leave by Monday evening.
SNCM is struggling to survive against private sector competition.
Under the privatisation plan, the state would keep a 25 percent stake, and employees would have 5 percent. French firm Butler Capital Partners would take 40 percent and Connex, the transport arm of French utility Veolia, the rest.
Perben said the state could not retain a blocking minority of 33 percent in the company, which would give it a veto over major corporate changes.
Under European Union rules, the government must give up control of SNCM because it has injected state aid into the firm to the point where the rules require it to be restructured.
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