Chirac seeks investigation of Holocaust comments

PARIS, Dec 15 (Reuters) Jacques Chirac has requested the investigation of a French researcher who participated in a conference in Iran questioning the Holocaust, the French president's office said today.

The two-day conference, which provoked a wave of international criticism, questioned whether the Nazis used gas chambers to kill six million Jews during World War Two.

''The President of the Republic has asked the Justice Minister to expedite a preliminary investigation after comments (Robert) Faurisson made in Tehran during the conference that questioned the reality of the Shoah,'' Chirac's office said.

The United States denounced the government-sponsored meeting, which ended on Tuesday, as an affront to civilisation.

French anti-racism laws have made denying the Holocaust a crime, punishable by fines or imprisonment.

Faurisson has been convicted several times in France of denying the Holocaust.

In October, a court sentenced him to a three-month suspended jail sentence and 7,500 euros in fines for his comments to an Iranian television station.

''There was never any attempt by the Nazis to exterminate the Jews,'' he had told the station.

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