PORTLAND -- Police are looking for two suspects in connection with a weekend assault that they say was a hate crime.

Police say the victim, a 31-year-old Portland resident, was walking home at 12:30 a.m. Saturday when he was stopped by two men in front of 419 Cumberland Ave. and assaulted.

One of the assailants used "homophobic slurs towards the victim and questioned his sexual orientation before assaulting him," police Capt. Vernon Malloch said in a statement this morning.

The victim was hit once in the head and recalls little else, police said. The assault ended when the two men got into a white car that had stopped to pick them up. A passerby found the victim unconscious on the sidewalk and called police.

The victim, whose name was not released, was taken by ambulance to Maine Medical Center where he was admitted for treatment of a head injury. He has since been discharged and is recovering at home, Malloch said.

The suspects in this case are described as being in their early 20's. One is a black male, between 5-feet-6-inches and 5-feet-10-inches tall, with a muscular build and shaved head or very short hair.

The other suspect was described as a white male, thin build with long brown hair. The car they fled in was a late model white four-door sedan with "fancy" chrome wheels, Malloch said.

Anyone with information is asked to call Portland police at 874-8604 or visit the departemnt's Web site, www.police.portlandmaine.gov, and click on the "citizen input" link.