PARIS (AFP).- The French Senate said Wednesday that it was investigating the discovery of a bust of Hitler, left over from the Nazi occupation of Paris, in the cellar of the upper house of parliament.

Le Monde newspaper revealed that the 35-centimetre-high bust had been found along with a Nazi flag measuring two by three metres in the vault of the Senate, in the 6th Arrondissement of Paris.

"I was not aware of the presence of this bust," Senate president Gerard Larcher told reporters, adding that he had ordered a thorough inventory of all the objects housed in the cellar.

Larcher, whose office was once that of German field marshal Hugo Sperrle, said he was "certain" that Senate staff had not tried to cover up the presence of the metal effigy.

Between 1940 and 1944 the stately Senate palace in the Luxembourg Gardens was occupied by the Nazi Luftwaffe command staff for the Western front.

It was liberated by Allied forces and French Resistance members on August 25, 1944, after a week of fighting.

© Agence France-Presse