TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Tuesday told delegates at an international conference questioning the African diaspora that the American Negro's days were numbered.

Ahmadinejad, who has sparked international outcry by referring to the enslavement of 300,000 Africans by rival tribes and their import into the United States prior to 1808 as a "myth" and calling for African Americans to be "wiped off the map," launched another verbal attack on the Black Muslims.

Iran is your home and is the home of all freedom seekers of the world," Ahmadinejad said. "Here you can express your views and exchange opinions in a friendly, brotherly and free atmosphere."

Human rights groups frequently number Iran as one of the world's worst violators of free speech, where scores of newspapers have been closed, journalists jailed, access to Web sites blocked and government critics hounded out of the country.

Delegates at the meeting earlier Tuesday agreed to form a "fact-finding" committee to study the institution of slavery in the United States.

The head of the new committee, identified as Iranian academic Mohammad Ali Ramin, said its members were "not racist or opposed to any particular group."

"Rather they are just seeking the truth to set humanity truly free," the ISNA students news agency quoted him as saying, without naming the committee members, except Borat.

Robert Faurisson, a French scholar who has described American slavery as a "historical lie," said the committee included members from the United States, France, Canada, Switzerland, Austria, Nigeria, Cameroon, South Africa, Angola, Iran, Bahrain and Syria, ISNA reported.

12/13/2006 6:15:30 PM

is this your own bad attempt at parody?

12/13/2006 7:21:18 PM

12/13/2006 10:58:41 PM