A security crackdown on Sydney?s beaches will be extended over Christmas after further racial violence over the weekend was averted with police arresting seven men with Molotov cocktails and confiscating scores of weapons.

Police Commissioner Ken Moroney said yesterday that as calm returned to the beaches, police numbers would be reduced ? but 800 officers would be scheduled on duty until the end of January to deal with the threat of violence. 

In the biggest security operation since the Sydney 2000 Olympics, some 2,000 police patrolled beaches on foot and horseback and in cars and boats in three cities on Sunday. Beaches, normally packed with tourists a week before Christmas, were almost deserted and beachside cafes half empty. A decision is yet be made on whether to allow Bondi Beach?s famous Christmas Day beach party on Dec 25, which attracts thousands of backpacking foreign tourists, to go ahead, said New South Wales state premier Morris Iemma. 

Several beach Christmas parties, some held by volunteer surf lifeguards, have already been cancelled. ?This is a fight for order and control of our streets,? Iemma told a news conference. ?There are hooligans out there who believe they have the right to determine who goes to beaches and streets and who will control parts of our parks and our streets.? But Iemma said the beaches were now safe and Australians should return to the sand and surf and resume their normal lives. ?The intelligence and the security assessments are such that people are encouraged to return to normal business,? he said. 


<b>Alcohol fuelled</b>

Racial violence first flared on Dec. 11 on Sydney?s southern beach of Cronulla, a mainly white beachside community. A large crowd stirred on by white supremacists and fuelled with alcohol turned on anyone of Middle East appearance. The crowd said they were defending their beach from ethnic Lebanese youth whom they blamed for a recent attack on life guards. Lebanese youths retaliated over two nights, attacking people and vandalising cars in several suburbs. 

Although calm returned to Sydney late last week, mobile telephone text messages continued to call for more racial violence. Police warned people to stay away from beaches in three cities ? Sydney, Newcastle and Wollongong. They ?locked down? Sydney?s Bondi Beach and the suburb of Brighton-le-Sands near Sydney airport on Sunday after people were arrested carrying Molotov cocktails. Five people north of Cronulla had a 25-litre (5-gallon) drum of petrol in their car, as well as condoms for making Molotov cocktails, police said. They also found two men with bottles of petrol on a Bondi bus. 

Michael PERRY