France's top Muslim leader said Wednesday that a besieged suspected Islamist who claims to have carried out a string of shootings to avenge Palestinian children had acted against Islam.

"These acts are in total contradiction with the foundations of this religion," said the head of the French Muslim Council, Mohammed Moussaoui. "France's Muslims are offended by this claim of belonging to this religion."

Moussaoui and Richard Prasquier, the head of France's main Jewish organisation, the CRIF, were to meet Wednesday with President Nicolas Sarkozy as the siege outside the shooter's apartment continued in the southwestern city of Toulouse.

The joint meeting shows "an important thing," Prasquier said, "that it is absolutely impossible to confuse this person and the Islamist, jihadist, al-Qaedist movement that he represents, with Islam in France, which is a religion like any other."

"There are French Muslims among this man's enemies," he said, adding that nonetheless: "We must avoid all complacency with regard to these movements, which represent a true danger to our republic."