Two civil rights associations have asked a French court to ban a website run by a far-right group linked to the man who tried to assassinate President Jacques Chirac two weeks ago.

The request, which calls for the site owned by the far-right organisation Radical Unity to be shut down, has been lodged by the Union of Jewish Students (UEJF) and the J'Accuse association, a group that monitors neo-Nazi propaganda on the internet.

The president continued with the parade

Maxime Brunerie, the 25-year-old man arrested for trying to shoot at Mr Chirac at the annual Bastille Day parade on 14 July, is a member of Radical Unity.

The request is to be heard by a tribunal in Paris on 31 July.

Mr Brunerie allegedly posted a message on another website, run by the British neo-Nazi group Combat 18, which the two associations said was linked to the Radical Unity website.

The message urged users to watch television on the day, although it did not spell out Mr Brunerie's intention to shoot the president.

Radical Unity "displays several documents, text and images, militant material of a racist and anti-Semitic character," the two associations said in their joint statement.

Clampdown

French Justice Minister Dominique Perben said after the attempt on Mr Chirac's life he was considering clamping down on racist websites.

Mr Brunerie is currently in a psychiatric ward for tests, while experts determine whether he was criminally responsible for his actions.

He is said to have a number of links to far-right organisations, standing as a local election candidate for the National Republican Movement (MNR), an offshoot of Jean-Marie Le Pen's National Front.

French police had also said Mr Brunerie had taken part in several far-right demonstrations since 1997 and that "extremist propaganda of a neo-Nazi" nature had been found at his home in Courcouronnes near Paris.