Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro on Monday criticized the expulsion of Roma people from France, saying French President Nicolas Sarkozy is insane.

In an article carried by Cuba's official media, Castro described the expulsions as a "racial holocaust," and considered the Roma as victims of the cruelty of the French far right.

"Nicolas Sarkozy, president of a nation possessing nuclear bombs, is going crazy," Castro wrote in his article "The endless hypocrisy of the West."

Castro noted that France is the world's third largest nuclear power and that Sarkozy has "a briefcase with the keys to launch every one of the over 300 nuclear bombs they have."

"What will happen if the French extreme right decides to oblige Sarkozy to hold a racist policy in contradiction with the norms of the European Community?" he asked.

Since returning to public life more two months ago, Castro has focused his public appearances and articles on the danger of a global nuclear war, which in his opinion could be unleashed in a possible U.S. attack on Iran.

Western powers have nuclear weapons, said Castro in his article, but Iran is threatened with an attack because of its own nuclear program.

"Does it make any moral or ethical sense to launch an attack on Iran, condemning its alleged intention to make a nuclear weapon, while they have their own? Where is the sanity and logic of this policy?" Castro asked.

"The absence of truth and the prevalence of lying is the greatest tragedy in our dangerous nuclear age," the leader of the Cuban Revolution wrote.

France has expelled from its territory more than 8,000 Romanian and Bulgarian Roma people. Paris decided to expel Roma illegal immigrants as part of a campaign to crack down on crimes.