Two of France’s main prison-guard unions called on their members to lift ongoing blockades set up by wardens at jails across the country after the justice minister, Rachida Dati, proposed to create 174 new prison-warden positions in a late-night meeting Wednesday.

Two unions representing wardens, FO and UFAP, called the offer a "step forward" and urged their members to suspend blockades while a vote is held. A third union, the CGT, left the meeting before it ended in a show of discontent.

Unions are set to vote on the government’s offer on Thursday morning, possibly ending a longstanding crisis opposing France’s prison guards and the government. A justice ministry spokesman, Guillaume Didier, said that he hoped a final agreement would be reached "as soon as possible".

Referring the promised new jobs, Christophe Marques, an FO union official, said: "It will never be enough. Our administration is too far behind."

He added: "But at least 351 concrete new positions have been promised, and that’s a step forward.” The number includes the creation of 177 additional jobs conceded by the government in 2008.

Representatives of France's 24,300 prison staff say working conditions have become increasingly intolerable as the jail population has grown. The French system counts 63,351 prisoners incarcerated in facilities designed to hold no more than 52,000.

The grim state of many French jails was underlined last month by a report from a prisoners' rights group which said there had been 42 prisoner suicides this year, after a total of 115 in 2008 and 96 in 2007.

Human rights groups have repeatedly criticised French prisons as dirty and overcrowded, and highlighted conditions in some jails where as many as four or five inmates are held in a single cell.

Prison guards, who start on a monthly salary of 1,200 euros, also face high stress levels and complain of daily confrontations with prisoners. According to UFAP, there have been at least nine suicides by guards so far this year.