PARIS — Vandals have struck a cemetery in northern France, defacing the graves of dozens of Muslim First World War soldiers.

A French prosecutor says 148 graves at the cemetery at Ablain-Saint-Nazaire have been sprayed with anti-Islam slogans.

A severed pigs head was found at the cemetery, along with graffiti singling out the French justice minister, who is of North African origin.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has condemned the vandalism as "racism," adding that it is also an attack on the memory of all those who fought in the First World War.

France's Muslim community is the largest in Western Europe. The Muslim section of the cemetery was targeted by similar vandalism in April 2007.