Dozens of delegates have walked out of a United Nations conference on racism after Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran's president, described Israel as a "racist government". Ahmadinejad told delegates at the summit in Switzerland on Monday, that after the Second World War the United States and other nations had established a "cruel, oppressive and racist regime in occupied Palestine". "The UN security council has stabilised this occupation regime and supported it in the last 60 years giving them a free hand to continue their crimes," he told delegates at the Durban Review Conference hall in Geneva. Dozens of diplomats from countries including Britain and France left the hall in protest as he made the remarks. Ahmadinejad also asked the conference: "What were the root causes of the US attacks against Iraq or invasion of Afghanistan? "The Iraqi people have suffered enormous losses ... wasn't the military action against Iraq planned by the Zionists ... in the US administration, in complicity with the arms manufacturing companies?". Many delegates who remained in the hall applauded Ahmadinejad's comments.