Special report: Iran Nuclear Crisis

    BEIJING, Dec. 13 (Xinhuanet) -- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Tuesday Israel would one day be "wiped out" at the end of a conference which "cast doubt on the Holocaust."

¡¡  His comments were believed to further fuel the outcry prompted by the two-day conference in Tehran finished on Tuesday, which  wanted to debate what Iran calls "taboos surrounding the Holocaust."

    Participants at the event included some of Europe's and the United States' best-known Holocaust deniers and white supremacists.

    "The Zionist regime will be wiped out soon the same way the Soviet Union was, and humanity will achieve freedom," Ahmadinejad said, according to the official IRNA news agency.

    He also called for elections among "Jews, Christians and Muslims so the population of Palestine can select their government and destiny for themselves in a democratic manner."

    Swiss Foreign Ministry spokesman Johann Aeschlimann said Tuesday that it was "unacceptable" to doubt the Holocaust's existence.

    British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Tuesday the conference was "shocking beyond belief" and "a symbol of sectarianism and hatred."

    The White House condemned Iran for convening a conference it called "an affront to the entire civilized world."

 ¡¡ Around 6 million Jews are estimated to have been killed by the Nazi regime during the Second World War.

   (Agencies)

Iran hosts int'l conference to discuss Holocaust