PARIS (AP) — France's main religious leaders have sent a message of unity and solidarity following a meeting with French President Francois Hollande after Islamic State extremists attacked a Catholic church and slit the throat of an elderly priest.

Hollande was to attend a defense council and a cabinet meeting later Wednesday.

Archbishop of Paris, Cardinal Andre Vingt-Trois, has called Catholics to "overcome hatred that comes in their heart" and not to "enter the game" of the Islamic State group that "wants to set children of the same family in opposition to each other".

Paris Imam Dalil Boubakeur said France's Muslims must push for a better training of Muslim clerics and called for a reform of French Muslim institutions to be on the agenda.