PARIS — Controversy over France’s stubborn belief in the existence of “global warming” grew today as a high-ranking deputy admitted that excessive heat and the deaths caused by it could have been avoided if the French government didn’t cling to “unscientific hoaxes regarding the weather.”

Christian Estrosi of the ruling UMP party blamed the heat wave crisis on “phony experts around the world who promote ‘global warming’” on Friday.

“It’s not our citizens’ fault that the unproven idea of ‘global warming’ is being forced on them by so-called scientists,” Estrosi said after the French health ministry reported that up to 3,000 have died in recent weeks in France as a result of the heat.

U.S. officials at the Environmental Protection Agency sided with Estrosi’s position, and claimed that “the reason you don’t see these kind of heat-related emergencies in the U.S. is due to our official position that ‘global warming’ needs more research.”

Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin has come under increased criticism for failure to act quickly to deal with the catastrophe. Critics have charged that he should have renounced “global warming” once it was clear that France was engulfed in a crisis.