Muhittin Altun, who survived an electrocution in October when he hid from police in a power sub-station, was detained on Tuesday in Clichy-sous-Bois, a poor neighbourhood northeast of Paris that was the epicentre of last year's violence.
Police said the 18-year-old had been pitching rocks at a police car. His lawyer denied the charge.
Mr Altun was alleged to have joined in the fresh wave of rioting as it spread from nearby Montfermeil, where gangs attacked a police station, set cars ablaze and threw stones at public buildings.
Police said four officers were wounded while protecting the Montfermeil police station from a hail of missiles. Five youths were arrested.
Four other officers managed to get out of their car, in front of the Bosquets public housing estate on the border of the two towns, just before the youths set it on fire, new agency AFP reported.
A day earlier seven officers were reported injured and three youths arrested.
Following the first outbreak of clashes late on Monday, when Montfermeil's town hall and mayor's home were attacked and a gang of 100 masked youths patrolled the suburb, a 250-man contingent was dispatched to quell the unrest.
Through the night a helicopter with a spotlight canvassed the neighbourhood, seeking new flare-ups.
Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, the powerful politician known for his law-and-order rhetoric, has pledged to clamp down on any further violence. "I won't let chaos be stirred up anywhere in France", he said.
French authorities have ordered the immediate scale-up of security, fearing a repeat of the unrest that plunged the country into the worst violence in four decades and unleashed a social crisis of dramatic proportions.
The unrest was initially sparked by the electrocution on October 27 of Mr Altun and friends Bouna Traore, a 15-year-old of Malian background, and Zyed Benna, a 17-year-old of Tunisian origin, who both died.
Youths in the suburb, after learning of the deaths, went on a rampage that spread around most of France's big cities and towns and prompted the government to declare a state of emergency.
The riots quickly snowballed in high-immigrant districts, fuelled by local youth anger at racial discrimination, a lack of educational and employment prospects and police harassment.
After three weeks of unrest across the country, the final toll rose to
10,000 vehicles torched and more than 3,200 people arrested.
One of Mr Altun's lawyers protested his arrest, dismissing police claims he had participated in the fresh rioting.
"Muhittin Altun is being held on pathetic charges -- throwing a rock -- which he vehemently denies. We are convinced of his innocence," Jean-Pierre Mignard told AFP.
"He was arrested in front of his home. We are stupefied that his arrest is taking place a day before a critical judicial proceeding," he said, referring to a visit he was to make with investigating magistrates to the sub-station where he had suffered burns.
The left-wing municipal authorities in Montfermeil blamed the flare-up in violence this week on the "heavy-handed" arrest of a woman from the Bosquets estate whose son was wanted in connection with a robbery.
Prosecutors confirmed that incidents broke out between youths and police after a woman and her son were taken into custody on Monday.
Regional authorities of the Seine-Saint-Denis prefecture denied the events were linked to the November riots, describing them as "sporadic incidents which, unfortunately, regularly accompany the work of police officers."
Mr Sarkozy said the violence in Montfermeil was not a spontaneous occurrence but a well-orchestrated strike.
"More than 100 troublemakers set upon you, masked and carrying weapons," he said. "It's impossible to deny the evidence: this was premeditated."
He also brushed aside criticism of the arrest of the woman and her son -- the incident thought to have set off the riots.
Mr Sarkozy is the favourite of the conservative camp for next year's presidential election.
Following last year's unrest, the centre-right government promised measures to fight discrimination and improve access to education, jobs and housing for residents of the riot-hit areas.
Despite the government's action, however, more than four in five French people said in January they feared the riots could flare up again.