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Argentina has given a Roman Catholic bishop who denies the extent of the Holocaust 10 days to leave the country or else he will be expelled, the government said today.

Bishop Richard Williamson, an ultra-traditionalist who headed a seminary near Buenos Aires until earlier this month, has said he believes there were no gas chambers and that no more than 300,000 Jews died in Nazi concentration camps, rather than the 6 million figure that is widely accepted by historians.

The Vatican has ordered him to retract his comments. Bishop Williamson has said in response he needs more time to review the evidence.

"The interior minister ... orders Richard Nelson Williamson to leave the country within 10 days or be expelled," said a statement issued by the government.

Pope Benedict angered Jewish leaders and progressive Catholics last month when he lifted excommunications on the bishop, Richard Williamson, and three other traditionalists to try to heal a 20-year-old schism within the Church.

Bishop Williamson, who is British-born, was removed earlier this month from the head of La Reja seminary on the outskirts of the Argentine capital.