PARIS, Dec 20, 2007 - A French minister on Thursday led official outrage over explicit pictures of Olympic swimming champion Laure Manaudou that have been widely shown on the internet.

　　"I think it's scandalous, cowardly, pathetic, any word you can think of to describe a case like this," France's secretary of state for sports Bernard Laporte, told Europe 1 radio.

　　"Let her focus on her swimming, that is what she enjoys. She needs to be strong, to be tough, but I know that she is. Three days and this will all be over, no one will talk about it any more," added Laporte, the former French national rugby coach.

　　One of the stars of this year's world championships, the 21-year-old Manaudou hit stormy waters this year following a split with her coach and a move to Italy after falling in love with Italian swimmer Luca Marin.

　　The romance ended this month in a very public spat, at the height of the European short-course championships in Hungary.

　　Last Sunday, lurid pictures showing a naked Manaudou started circulating on the Internet.

　　Marin has denied all responsibility: "I have nothing to do with any of this," he told reporters on Monday.

　　"I was extremely pained to see these pictures, and I was told that a French website claimed they were put online by me or with my consent. That's all nonsense."

　　But the swimmer's brother Nicolas Manaudou, who took over as her coach when she returned from Italy recently, said he was furious.

　　"I hope whoever did this will be made to pay, and more than just a bit," he told the Sport.fr website.

　　Manaudou's lawyer, Didier Poulmaire, declined to comment, but several websites that initially published the pictures have since withdrawn them.

　　"I want Laure to know she has our full support and encouragement," Laporte added.

　　"People don't care about what was published. That's not what they'll remember about her. What they'll remember is the medals she's going to win at the next Olympics", added French judo champion David Douillet.

　　"The people around her need to take care of this, for her to concentrate on what she does best."