Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Thursday reiterated that "the racism of the Israelis is worse than Nazism" at a news conference held during his official visit to Spain.

Assad came under strong criticism last March when he said at a Middle East summit in Amman that the Jewish state was more racist than the Nazi regime.

Asked for further comment during a joint press conference with Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, Assad recalled that an Israeli minister had said that Palestinians should be driven out of the territories to ensure the purity of the Jewish people.

"That same person asked the Israeli government to exterminate Arabs and so I leave it to you to judge whether this is Nazism," said Assad.

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