French far-right leader Marine Le Pen on Thursday withdrew a photograph of the decapitated body of US journalist James Foley from her Twitter account after his parents accused her of using it for political gain.

"I did not know it was a photograph of James Foley. It can be accessed by anyone on Google. I learned this morning that his family has asked for it to be removed and of course I took it down immediately," said Le Pen who posted the image after a journalist compared her National Front (FN) party to the Islamic State group which killed Foley.