French neo-Nazis have formed an alliance with extremist Jewish groups on the Internet to publish hate messages against Arabs and Muslims, according to a leading anti-racist group.
Members of extreme-right groups were prepared to set aside their anti-Semitic feelings to share web space and know-how with extremist pro-Israeli campaigners, amid a rise in violence in the Middle East, the study found.
"This is a new phenomenon," Mr Mouloud Aounit, head of the MRAP group that published the 170-page report, said today.
The report said 26 websites, traced to right-wing and Jewish extremists groups in France, operated from the same server in the United States between 1999 and March this year.
Members of the groups also shared advice on how to send messages without leaving electronic trails.
Investigators believed the sites were taken down because of disagreement between the groups over the US-led war in Iraq, with Jewish extremists supporting the action but some French far-rightwingers against it.
The report claimed that between 2001 and 2003, the groups sent 1,000 messages a day, including incitements to attack mosques in the hope of triggering civil war between Arabs and other French people.
There were also messages calling for the assassination of French President Jacques Chirac, the report said.