Iran today opened a conference on the Holocaust by saying it would not be an attempt to deny the Second World War genocide but to discuss it in an unrestricted atmosphere.
However, the conference was set up by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has described the Holocaust as a "myth" and called for Israel to be wiped off the map.
The organisers, the foreign ministry's Institute for Political and International Studies (IPIS), said the two-day conference has drawn 67 foreign researchers from 30 countries.
In his opening speech, the institute's chief, Rasoul Mousavi, said the conference "seeks neither to deny or prove the Holocaust.
"It is just to provide an appropriate scientific atmosphere for scholars to offer their opinions in freedom about a historical issue," Mr Mousavi said.
He said the conference provided an opportunity to discuss "questions" about the Holocaust away from Western taboos and the restrictions imposed on scholars in Europe.
Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki is scheduled to read a message to the conference from President Ahmadinejad, who has said that the killing of six million Jews by the Nazi German regime during the Second World War was a "myth" and "exaggerated".
The president has repeatedly downplayed the Holocaust, questioning why it has been used to justify the creation of Israel at the cost of Palestinian lands - a view popular among Iranian hardliners.
AP