Iran invites Blair to Holocaust conference

TEHRAN (AFP) - Iran has invited British Prime Minister Tony Blair to Tehran to take part in a planned conference on the Holocaust, branded a "myth" by the Islamic republic's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

"It would be good for Mr. Blair to participate in the Holocaust seminar in Tehran," foreign ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told reporters.

"He can also contribute with an article. If he wants to defend the Holocaust in that article, he can do so. We will give him the time to read out his article so others can hear his point of view," Asefi said Sunday, adding the conference was slated for "the coming spring".

On Monday, Blair lashed out at the planned meeting as "shocking, ridiculous, stupid," and said Ahmadinejad "should come and see the evidence of the Holocaust himself in the countries of Europe".

"In Mr. Blair's speech there was an invitation for the Iranian president to go there and see the places close up. We have to see when the president has time for it," Asefi said.

Iran's foreign ministry has already said was willing to send a team of "independent investigators" to visit former Nazi deaths camps across Europe.

Ahmadinejad, an ultra-conservative who came to power in a surprise victory last June, has provoked international condemnation with a number of anti-Israeli and anti-Jewish remarks.

They include labelling Israel a "tumour" that should be "wiped off the map" or moved as far away as Alaska and claiming the Holocaust -- the systematic slaughter by the Nazis of mainland Europe's Jews as well as other groups during World War II -- was a Western invention.

Iran has presented the planned conference as an exercise in free speech, where Asefi said Blair "can say the kind of things he cannot say in London".