'Zero tolerance' for French anti-Semitism

French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy vowed "zero tolerance" for anti-Semitic crimes during a visit on Monday to a Jewish school targeted in a weekend acid attack.

"When someone threatens a Jew, they threaten the Republic," Sarkozy said at the Sinai school in northern Paris.

Attackers on Saturday threw three bottles of hydrochloric acid at a part of the school that serves as a synagogue.

Worshippers were meeting in the room when one of the bottles of acid landed inside. Two others landed in a courtyard. There were no injuries.

Zero tolerance

Sarkozy insisted there was "only one strategy" - that of "zero tolerance, to not allow anything and to punish people right away in order to avoid having to do so when it's already too late."

Police on Sunday detained a 15-year-old in connection with the attack, and Sarkozy said two other youths were taken in for questioning on Monday. The three suspects, including two 17-year-olds, were to be held overnight and a judicial investigation opened on Tuesday, judicial officials said.

Sarkozy's office released a report Monday showing that anti-Semitic acts in France fell by 48 percent to 290 in the first six months of this year, down from 561 in the same period of 2004.

The ministry said the number of the most violent acts, such as bombings or arson, fell the most - down to 49 this year from 148 a year ago.

The report came the day before Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was to arrive in France for a four-day visit, his first trip to the country since taking office in 2001.

Sharon sparked a diplomatic row last year when he told American Jewish leaders that France played host to "the wildest anti-Semitism" and encouraged French Jews to immigrate to Israel.

He has since praised the efforts of the French government to combat anti-Semitism.