LONDON (AP) - Prime Minister Tony Blair said Tuesday he found it "unbelievable" and "shocking" that Iran hosted a conference examining whether the Holocaust took place, a meeting Israel's prime minister has condemned as a "sick phenomenon." "You only have to see what is happening in Iran in the past couple of days to realize how important it is that all people of moderation in the Middle East try to come together and sort out the problems," Blair said, referring to the conference that ends Tuesday in Tehran.
The 67 participants from 30 countries included former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke and Holocaust skeptics who have been prosecuted in Europe for questioning whether 6 million Jews were killed by the Nazis or whether gas chambers were ever used.
The two-day conference was initiated by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in an apparent attempt to burnish his status as a tough opponent of Israel. The hard-line president has described the Holocaust as a "myth" and called for Israel to be wiped off the map.
Organizers and participants touted the conference as a scholarly gathering aimed at discussing the Holocaust away from Western taboos and the restrictions imposed on scholars in Europe. In Germany, Austria and France, it is illegal to deny aspects of the Holocaust.
Although Blair's government has advocated engagement with Iran and Syria, the prime minister said at his monthly news conference that Tehran was doing nothing positive in the region.
"I mean, they hold this conference yesterday which ... is such a symbol of sectarianism and hatred toward people of another religion. I find it just unbelievable really," Blair said.
Blair repeated his position that there is no basis for talking with Iran unless Ahmadinejad's government is prepared to be constructive.
"Iran is deliberately at the present time causing maximum problems for moderate governments and for ourselves in the region, in Palestine, in Lebanon and in Iraq," Blair said. "And I found this conference that they had, questioning the Holocaust, to be shocking beyond belief.
"I don't believe, incidentally, that it is supported by the majority of Iranian people, but it is a deeply extreme regime and it is hostile to our interests," Blair said.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said at a news conference with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that her country would "never accept" the meeting in Iran.
"We absolutely reject this; Germany will never accept this and will act against it with all the means that we have," Merkel said.
Olmert said he welcomed Germany's condemnation of the conference, calling the meeting "unacceptable" and a "danger" to the Western world.
France's parliament erupted into applause when Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said the conference featured "negationist or revisionist theses which are quite simply not acceptable."
In Belgium, the European Union's top justice official said the conference constituted "an unacceptable affront" to victims of the World War II genocide.
"Anti-Semitism has no place in Europe; nor should it in any other part of the world," EU Justice and Home Affairs Commissioner Franco Frattini said.
The Vatican said Tuesday that the Holocaust was an "immense tragedy" that must serve as a warning to people's consciences.
"The Shoah (Holocaust) was a great tragedy before which we cannot remain indifferent," the Holy See said. "The memory of those horrible events must remain as a warning for people's consciences, to eliminate conflicts, respect the rights of all peoples, exhort for peace, truth and justice."
