A speech by Iran's president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad accusing Israel of racism sparked protests and a mass walkout by UN diplomats.
The hard-line leader's appearance at the UN racism conference in Geneva overshadowed its aim of stamping out intolerance worldwide.
UN chief Ban Ki-moon condemned the attack, saying Ahmadinejad's used his speech "to accuse, divide and incite".
Protesters holding placards repeatedly interrupted Ahmadinejad's speech with shouts of "Shame! shame!" and "Racist! racist!"
Later, about 100 members of mainly pro-Israel and Jewish groups blocked Ahmadinejad's entrance to a scheduled news conference.
Ahmadinejad pointed the finger at the US and Europe for helping to establish Israel after the Second World War "under the pretext of Jewish suffering".
That prompted a walkout by some 40 diplomats from European countries such as Britain and France, which had threatened to leave the conference if it descended into anti-Semitic or other rhetoric harshly critical of Israel.
The boycotting countries expressed concern that Muslim countries would drown out many issues with calls for a denunciation of Israel and a global ban on criticising aspects of the Islamic faith.
Ahmadinejad's attendance has provoked outrage from Jewish groups, as he has in the past questioned the Holocaust.
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article