UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon accused Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad today of misusing a UN conference on racism at which he attacked Israel's policy towards the Palestinians as racist.
"It is very regretful that the conference was misused by the Iranian president for political purposes," Mr Ban said during an official visit to Malta.
Mr Ahmadinejad used his speech at the conference on racism in Geneva yesterday to describe Israel as "the most cruel and repressive racist regime" because of its treatment of the Palestinians.
His comments prompted a walk-out by some 20 Western delegations and drew criticism from rights groups and Western governments.
Mr Ban also expressed regret that some countries had stayed away from the conference. The United States and Israel led about a dozen nations in boycotting the meeting because of concern that it might become a forum for attacks on the Jewish state.
"Before the speech I had a long bilateral meeting with President Ahmadinejad and urged him to give a balanced and constructive contribution to the conference because he was the only head of state present," Mr Ban said.
Mr Ahmadinejad was invited to speak first because he was the only head of state at the conference, though invitations had been issued to all heads of state, Mr Ban added.
He said he had no new appointment to meet Mr Ahmadinejad but would approach Iran and other countries which had issues with the conference to discuss the situation.
France's foreign minister Bernard Kouchner criticised the United States today for boycotting the conference.
France, which has strong diplomatic and business ties with the Middle East, joined the walk-out of delegates in Geneva, but then returned to the meeting.
Mr Kouchner said it was wrong of the United States to shun the conference after announcing it was open for negotiations on Iran's nuclear program.
"It's paradoxical - they don't want to listen to Iran in Geneva but they are ready to talk to them," Mr Kouchner told French radio Europe 1. "More than a paradox, that could really be a mistake."
France's president Nicolas Sarkozy has worked hard to mend ties with the United States after a rift over the war in Iraq, and was eager to show off his good relations with US president Barack Obama at this month's Nato summit in Strasbourg.
But France has also been keen to maintain close relations with Arab governments, who have supported the conference.
Mr Kouchner said France would continue to work on the draft text prepared for the Geneva meeting and expected a result later today, adding that the declaration would condemn anti-Semitism and the Holocaust.
"It will be a defeat for Ahmadinejad because there will be, I hope by tonight, this declaration. But the politics of the empty chair is easy. You leave and you shout at the others," Mr Kouchner said.
The US, Canada, Australia and a number of European governments stayed away from the conference on fears it would be hijacked by critics of Israel.
Mr Ahmadinejad has in the past cast doubt on the Nazi Holocaust. "Following World War Two they resorted to military aggressions to make an entire nation homeless under the pretext of Jewish suffering," Mr Ahmadinejad told the conference, on the day that Jewish communities commemorate the Holocaust.
Reuters