President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has reacted angrily to a group of some 300 well-known French personalities who urged prominent Muslims to denounce anti-Jewish and anti-Christian references in the Quran.

Addressing a ruling party meeting on Tuesday, Erdogan described the group that includes actor Gerard Depardieu, singer Charles Aznavour and the former president, Nicolas Sarkozy, as "despicable" and accused them of attacking scriptures sacred to Muslims.

The group signed a manifesto which was published in Le Parisien newspaper on Sunday. The statement urged Muslims to denounce some references so "no believer can refer to a holy text to commit a crime."

Erdogan suggested other holy books had controversial references, saying: "If they had read it, they would probably ask for the Bible to be banned but they have no such concern."