TEHERAN: UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan told Iranians the Holocaust was "an undeniable historical fact" yesterday after meeting President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The president caused outrage in the West when he said it was a "myth."

Annan also condemned an exhibition of Holocaust cartoons in Teheran that was staged by an Iranian newspaper in retaliation for the September publication of caricatures of the Muslim Prophet Mohammad in Danish and other European newspapers.

Those drawings angered many Muslims and prompted attacks on European embassies, including missions in Iran.

"I think all of us in this room remember the uproar the Danish cartoons created particularly in this region," Annan said, adding that the right to freedom of expression had to be exercised with sensitivity and responsibility.

"I think the tragedy of the Holocaust is a sad and an undeniable historical fact so we should really handle that, accept that fact and teach children what happened in World War II and ensure that it is never repeated.

"We should be careful not to say anything that is used as an excuse for incitement to hatred or violence," he said.

Ahmadinejad described the Holocaust, in which 6 million Jews were killed by the Nazis, as a "myth" in December. He has not repeated that remark but has said the event is open to question.

Annan cancelled a trip to Iran in November after Ahmadinejad called for Israel to be "wiped off the map." That phrase also sparked Western condemnation and he has not repeated it. But his speeches are peppered with anti-Israel rhetoric.

A UN spokesman said Annan condemned the Holocaust cartoons as "distasteful" in Saturday's talks with Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki. A leading American Jewish group had urged Annan to speak out against the exhibition when in Iran.

Speaking at yesterday's news conference with Annan, Mottaki said: "Historical issues can be studied and discussed by experts. What we both agree upon... is the importance of prohibiting insults."

Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi also told a separate news conference the Holocaust was "not a sacred issue that we cannot touch" and said a Holocaust conference would be held in Iran in the autumn.

(China Daily 09/04/2006 page8)