Mural paintings dating back 11 000 years have been found in a building on a bank of the River Euphrates in northern Syria, a French archaeologist said on Tuesday.

Eric Coqueugniot said they were the oldest murals found in the Middle East.

"Geometric paintings - black, white and red - have been found on the wall of a house in Jadeh," he said, adding that they were discovered in late September in a circular house with a diameter of about seven metres.