French police on Tuesday stepped up the hunt for thieves who stole priceless royal jewels from the Louvre museum, as scrutiny mounted over security at the country's cultural institutions.

Sunday's audacious daylight robbery -- which lasted just seven minutes -- was the latest in a string of thefts from French museums in recent months, and has left authorities scrambling to increase protection measures.

In a separate case, a prosecutor said on Tuesday that a Chinese woman had been charged over taking part in the theft of more than $1 million worth of gold nuggets from another Paris museum last month.

Scores of investigators were still looking for Sunday's culprits, working on the theory that it was an organised crime group that clambered up a ladder on a truck to break into the museum, t

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