FRENCH President Emmanuel Macron decided today to lift the state of emergency in New Caledonia to allow political dialogue following violent unrest that left seven people dead and a trail of destruction.

The president’s office said the state of emergency would not be extended “for the moment” and so would end at 5am tomorrow.

The decision aims at “enabling meetings of the various components” of pro-independence movement the Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front (FLNKS) and allowing elected officials and other local leaders “in a position to call” for lifting the barricades to go and meet protesters, the Elysee palace said in a statement.

In the statement, Mr Macron insisted that such action was “the necessary condition for the opening of concrete and serious negotiations.”

However, pro-independence leader Christian Tein called on supporters to “remain mobilised” across the Pacific archipelago and “maintain resistance” to the Paris government’s efforts to impose changes to voting rights that the Kanaks fear would further marginalise them.

Mr Tein, who heads a party known as the Field Action Co-ordination Unit, spoke in a video posted on social media.

In a separate statement, the Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front said that Mr Macron must withdraw the electoral register revision if France wants to “end the crisis.”

Today’s statement by the French presidency said that 480 additional gendarmes would arrive in the Pacific archipelago “in the next few hours,” bringing security reinforcements to more than 3,500. The seven people shot dead include two gendarmes.

The state of emergency was imposed on May 15 for at least 12 days, giving authorities greater powers of repression, including the possibility of house detention for people deemed a threat to public order and expanded powers to conduct searches, seize weapons and restrict movements, with possible jail sentences for violators.