"The president of the republic condemned the remarks made today by the Iranian president questioning the reality of the Holocaust," a statement from the Elysee said.
Sarkozy had told Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki during a meeting in Paris that such comments were "unacceptable and profoundly shocking," the statement said.
The hardline Ahmadinejad, who is seeking a second term in office, reiterated on Wednesday his anti-Israel stance and called the Holocaust a "big deception."
He also accused the world's liberal democracies of degrading "human values" with their pro-Israel policies, according to quotes carried by the news website of Iranian state television.
"The identity of the liberal democracy has been exposed to the world by its protection of the most criminal regime in the history of humanity, the Zionist regime, by using the big deception of the Holocaust.
"There is no doubt that the only way to replace the liberal thought is to go back to the teachings of the divine prophets," Ahmadinejad said.
Sarkozy, in his Paris meeting with Mottaki, also voiced France's "serious concern regarding Iran's (nuclear) proliferation programme and reiterated our desire to contribute to a solution," the presidential statement said.
