Paris: The deadly Ebola virus could solve France's immigration problems ''in three months'', Jean-Marie Le Pen, the founder and honorary president of France's far-right Front National party, said in remarks which shocked the country's political establishment.

Speaking on Tuesday night in Marseille shortly before a joint rally with Marine Le Pen, his daughter and current party leader, Mr Le Pen, 85, said: ''There is a demographic explosion in the world and a risk of submersion. A replacement of [the national] population is under way.'' However, he added: ''Monsieur Ebola can solve the problem in three months.''

Jean-Marie Le Pen, founder and honorary president of France's far-right Front National party, in Marseille. Credit:AFP

An outbreak in Guinea of the viral haemorrhagic fever, for which there is no effective treatment or vaccine, has crossed international borders for the first time, killing at least 83 people in West Africa.

Mr Le Pen, who is running for the European Parliament in France's South-East constituency, made the inflammatory remarks during an exchange with French journalists. He went on to tell a crowd of 1500 that France's immigration situation was ''made worse'' by the fact that most immigrants were Muslim, ''a religion whose aim is to conquer''.