In dramatic scenes in Menton, in south east France, border guards including riot police halted hundreds of mainly North African men who have crossed from Libya and Tunisia.
The trains, on which they travelled and which also contained political activists calling for better rights for immigrants, were attempting to cross from the nearby Italian border station of Ventimiglia.
"Our orders are to cancel all services from Italy," said a spokesman for the French national train operator SNCF.
He said the trains had been stopped on the orders of the Alpes-Maritimes Prefecture "until further notice".
The Italian Foreign Minister, Franco Frattini, directed his embassy in Paris to lodge a protest with France.
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