Iran president triggers EU walkout at racism meet

European Union delegates walked out of a major United Nations anti-racism conference on on Monday after Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad launched a verbal onslaught against "cruel" Israel.

The meeting which had already been boycotted by several Western countries such as the United States and Australia, as well as Israel, was plunged into further controversy as Ahmadinejad took to the stage.

Several demonstrators were ejected as the Iranian president began his speech at the conference in Geneva and soon afterwards delegates from the European Union quit the conference room in protest at some of his comments.

Ahmadinejad, who has previously called for the Jewish state to be wiped off the map, criticised the creation of a "totally racist government in occupied Palestine" in 1948, calling it "the most cruel and racist regime".

"They sent migrants from Europe, the United States ... in order to establish a racist government in the occupied Palestine," he added.

But while the speech from the Iranian leader, who has also described the Nazi Holocaust as a "myth", was shunned by Western powers, other delegates who stayed to hear him speak greeted his words with applause.