France faced another day of strikes and protests Tuesday with a record number of police deployed as President Emmanuel Macron remained defiant over a pensions reform that is sparking turmoil in the country.

The day of action is the tenth such mobilisation since protests started in mid-January against the law, which includes raising the retirement age from 62 to 64.

Last Thursday saw the most violent clashes yet between protesters and security forces as tensions erupted into pitched battles on the streets of Paris and police reported 457 arrests across France and injuries to 441 police officers.

Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said 13,000 members of the security forces -- including 5,500 in Paris alone -- would be deployed Tuesday. The number, a record, was justified by "a major risk to public order", he said Monday.

Nearly two weeks after Macron rammed the new pensions law through parliament using a special provision sidestepping a vote in the lower house, unions have vowed no let-up in mass protests to get the government to back down.

A state visit to France by Britain's King Charles III, which had been due to begin Sunday, was postponed because of the unrest.

Macron Monday instead met Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne, other cabinet ministers and senior lawmakers for crisis talks at the Elysee Palace, the presidency said.

"We need to continue to hold out a hand to the unions," a participant in the meeting quoted Macron as saying.

In a conciliatory gesture, Borne has scheduled talks over three weeks with members of parliament, political parties, local authorities and unions.

Borne is expected to offer unions new measures designed to ease the impact of the pensions law targeting physically demanding jobs, conditions for older workers and retraining.

But early reactions were not promising for the prime minister.