A group of hackers known as ‘Anonymous’ attacked the French president’s website on Friday, apparently in retaliation of the country’s official support of an American clampdown on the popular file-sharing website, Megaupload.

­Anonymous inserted their online slogan "We are legion" into the website’s navigation bar, where it stayed until the end of the day.

The French government reiterated its stance on the issue and denounced the people behind Megaupload.com as criminals and their actions as massive violations of copyright law.

"It is delinquency, it is theft," AFP quoted the French Culture Minister, Frederic Mitterrand, as saying. "The truth is that they are stealing on a large scale."

The US authorities have indicted seven people for "massive worldwide online piracy of numerous types of copyrighted works, through Megaupload.Com and other related sites."

An international crackdown has led agents to serve at least 20 search warrants across the globe. Four of the company’s senior figures have already been arrested in New Zealand, and Washington is now demanding their extradition to the US to be prosecuted for alleged online piracy, racketeering and money laundering.