PARIS A senior French official is to appear in court accused of inciting racial hatred after the leaking of his internal memo on the targeting of Roma camps.

Michel Bart's directive ordering the dismantling of settlements of Romanian and Bulgarian immigrants - who were expelled from France - caused political embarrassment for President Nicolas Sarkozy and outrage at home and abroad. It prompted Viviane Reding, the EU's justice commissioner, to liken the French expulsions to Nazi deportations during the second world war, an accusation France furiously rejected.

In his directive Bart, who is head of the interior minister's private office, reminded local government officials “300 illegal camps or settlements must be evacuated within three months, particularly those of the Roma.” At the time, Sarkozy's govt was under fire for expelling nearly 1,000 Romanian and Bulgarian Gypsies, but ministers were publicly insisting that the Roma were not being specifically targeted.

Bart will appear before a tribunal that will decide whether his memo constitutes “incitement to racial hatred” next month. The legal action was launched by the Representative Council of Black Associations. The French Human Rights League and an immigrant support group are bringing a separate lawsuit. —Dawn/Guardian News Service