The United Nations human rights office has urged France to repeal its "stupid" ban on burkinis, saying it did not improve security and only fuelled religious intolerance.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein called the ban "highly discriminatory" and welcomed the decision by France's highest court to suspend it in one Riviera town. As many as 30 other towns have imposed a similar ban which must be lifted "immediately", said his spokesman Robert Colville.

"We call on the authorities in all the other French seaside towns and resorts that have adopted similar bans to take note of the Conseil d'Etat's ruling that the ban constitutes a grave and illegal breach of fundamental freedoms," he told a briefing.

"We urge all remaining local authorities which have adopted similar bans to repeal them immediately."

The restrictions on the full-body swimsuit that leaves the face, hands and feet exposed has been defended by the French Prime Minister and local mayors on the basis of secularism.

The deputy Mayor of Nice, Rudy Salles, told BBC Radio 4: "If you want to go to the beach in a burkini it's forbidden because it is a provocation. Religion and the state are completely separated. Religion is the affair of each one but each one at home, each one at church, not each one in the street."

But Colville said the ban in response to recent terror attacks in France was "frankly a stupid reaction".

He said: "It does nothing to increase security, it does nothing to improve public order."

In a damning critique he added the decrees "fuel religious intolerance and the stigmatization of Muslims in France, especially women" and "may actually undermine the effort to fight and prevent violent extremism, which depends on cooperation and mutual respect between communities".

He concluded: "And it's a complete contradiction to think we liberate people from clothing impositions by making other clothing impositions. So the idea that by banning this form of clothing you are somehow advancing women's freedom is complete nonsense."

Additional reporting by Reuters.