  High resolution mid-infrared (MIR) images of the central region of NGC1068
have been obtained with VISIR, the multi-mode MIR instrument recently installed
at the ESO/VLT on Paranal. A map of the emission at 12.8mic with increased
sensitivity over the central 8"x 8" area is discussed. It shows a central core
(unresolved along the E-W direction) and an extended emission which draws a
spiral pattern similar to that observed on near-infrared images. Patches of MIR
emission can be detected up to a distance of 4" from the core. The deconvolved
12.8mic map is fully consistent with previous high-resolution MIR observations.
It highlights the structure of the extended emission, already seen on the
un-deconvolved image, and allows to identify a set of mid-infrared sources: 7
in the NE quadrant and 5 in the SW quadrant. The MIR emission map is compared
with those obtained at comparable angular resolution in the near-infrared and
in the [OIII] line emission. The very good correlation between the VISIR map
and the HST optical map supports the idea that the MIR emission not associated
with the torus arises from dust associated with the narrow line region clouds.
The N-S extension of the MIR core (0.44") is then probably simply due to the
mixing of the MIR emission from the dusty torus and the MIR emission from NLR
cloud B, located only 0.1" to the North.
