France has suspended the planned electoral reform in its overseas territory of New Caledonia that triggered weeks of deadly unrest, French President Emmanuel Macron says.
It comes as New Caledonia's president confirms a ninth person has died in the worst violence seen in the territory in four decades.
The French government had planned to extend the right to vote in provincial elections to residents who have lived in the territory for at least 10 years.
That would have given some 24,000 people the right to cast their ballots.
However, the move deeply upset some local leaders, who feared it would dilute the Indigenous Kanak vote.
The Kanaks make up 40 per cent of the population and many see the move as an attempt to derail New Caledonia's independence movement.
Mr Macron confirmed on Wednesday that the plan had been postponed.
"The constitutional project on the electorate in New Caledonia has been suspended," Mr Macron told reporters.
"I have decided to suspend it, because we can't leave things ambiguous in this period."
Instead he said he aimed to "give full voice to local dialogue and the restoration of order" after weeks of unrest.
The confirmation comes days after he called a snap election and the parliament was dissolved.
He made the move after his party lost heavily to the far-right at the European Parliament elections.
A joint meeting of both houses of the French parliament was needed to bring the change into law.
He had wanted to pass the changes by June, but delayed the move after a snap visit to New Caledonia on May 23.
After meetings with political leaders revealed there was no "common vision" for the island's future.
At the time he said the voting reforms would not pass in its "current context" and would allow tensions to ease before resuming dialogue "to find a broad accord".
Pro-independence movements had already seen the voting reform as dead and buried given the president's election call.
"We can all agree that the European elections saw off the constitutional bill," the Kanak Liberation Party (Palika) said on Wednesday before Mr Macron's remarks.
"This should be a time for rebuilding peace and social ties," it added.
Ninth person killed in riots
New Caledonia's President Louis Mapou said the dissolution of the French parliament meant the electoral changes were "no longer relevant".
His comment came at the same time he announced a ninth death linked to the unrest — a 34-year-old man who died from injuries "caused in a confrontation" on May 29.
"The president … would like to send his most sincere condolences to his family, his clan and his chiefdom and to show them his affection in these painful moments," a statement from Mr Mapou's office said.
"Nine [deaths] too many: a deeply regrettable situation for our country."
New Caledonia's president once again urged protesters to lift roadblocks and return to calm.
French security forces remain at work across the archipelago with some roadblocks still manned by Kanak and pro-independence supporters.
The French High Commission in New Caledonia said as of June 10 that 1,192 people had been arrested in connection to the riots and 228 police officers and gendarmes had been injured.
It said some 2,700 people had been flown home on evacuation flights, with 1,500 other locals able to return to the territory.
The international airport remains closed and a night curfew will stay in place until June 17.
The unrest sparked in mid-May when protests turned violent, with cars and businesses torched in the capital Noumea.
French authorities quickly imposed a state of emergency, sending in thousands of extra security reinforcements to try and quell the riots.
The French government also banned TikTok, concerned it was being used to promote unrest.
