PARIS, Oct. 30 (Xinhuanet) -- French President Jacques Chirac on Saturday condemned most strongly the desecration of 92 tombstones in a Jewish cemetery in Brumath, east France.

    "I learnt emotionally the desecration of tombstones in the Jewish cemetery of Brumath and I condemn most strongly this intolerable act", Chirac said in a statement released Saturday evening.

    "I extend my sympathy and my solidarity, in the name of the nation, to all concerned families as well as all the Jewish community in France," he added.

    Chirac asked the French government to "take necessary steps without delay so that the perpetrators of the odious acts could be found, arrested and handed to justice."

    A total of 92 tombstones of the Jewish cemetery of Brumath, in east France, were found on Saturday afternoon to have been smeared with swastikas.

    In early August, the tombstones of about 60 graves in the Jewish cemetery of Lyon, in south France, and a monument to the Jews that died in World War II were smeared with swastikas and anti-Semitic graffiti.

    Between May and July, at least 159 tombstones at Jewish cemeteries in Alsace in eastern France have been similarly desecrated.

    France, which has a predominantly Christian and Catholic religious heritage, is home to Europe's biggest Jewish and Muslim communities of 600,000 and five million respectively out of a total population of 60 million. Enditem