New Caledonia votes to remain French in referendum: partial results

PARIS - Voters in New Caledonia, France's archipelago in the South Pacific, decided to remain French in a referendum vote.

According to partial results Sunday, about 60 percent of 175,000 people eligible to vote - mainly descendants of colonial settlers, said "No" to the call of pro-independence indigenous Kanaks.

Turnout in the referendum was 73.68 percent.

Located more than 16,700 kms from the French mainland, New Caledonia was declared a French overseas territory in 1946.