Republican order will be re-established whatever the cost, French government high commissioner Louis Le Franc told reporters in Noumea.
If separatists want to use their arms, they will be risking the worst, he warned.
New Caledonia, with a population of about 270,000, has been convulsed by unrest for a week, sparked by French plans to impose new rules that would give tens of thousands of non-Indigenous residents voting rights.
France says about 1,000 additional security force members have been sent to the islands. 600 heavily armed police and paramilitaries on Sunday took part in an operation to retake the 60-kilometre (40-mile) main road.
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