Nov. 23 (Bloomberg) -- France faces a ``real'' threat of terrorist attacks, the country's domestic intelligence chief said, as lawmakers today begin examining a bill that would give his service greater surveillance powers.

``It's a very real concern,'' said Pierre de Bousquet de Florian, director of the Direction de la Surveillance du Territoire, or DST, in an interview with RTL radio. His comments echoed remarks by Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy on Nov. 17.

``A certain number of organizations have designated us as an enemy,'' Bousquet de Florian said. ``Our own investigations increasingly show that existing networks are at work on terrorist projects hostile to our country.''

The DST head cited the arrests of a French national in the southern city of Montpellier in July and of members of a terrorist cell based in the Paris suburb of Trappes as examples of people plotting attacks in France that had been foiled.

The bill before the French National Assembly today would lengthen the time terrorist suspects can be questioned without charge from four days to six, give the DST more powers to monitor telephone calls and Internet use, and increase video surveillance capabilities.

Sarkozy told a conference of police officers on Nov. 17 that when he said that the terrorist ``threat is severe, it wasn't rhetoric.''

Since the beginning of 2002, French intelligence units have arrested more than 327 people and jailed about 100 on terrorist- related charges, the Interior Ministry says.

Bousquet de Florian said in the radio interview that there was no link between Islamic extremist groups and riots this month in the suburbs of Paris and other big cities in which cars were burned and rioters clashed with police.

To contact the reporter on this story: Simon Packard in Paris packard@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: November 23, 2005 05:56 EST