UN Chief Ban Ki-Moon met with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on the sidelines of the UN racism conference which opened in Geneva on Monday. UN spokeswoman Marie Heuze confirmed the meeting, but gave no further details.

Ban Ki-Moon opened the conference only a short time earlier and expressed his disappointment that nine countries had chose to boycott the conference. He also harshly criticized all forms of Holocaust denial and Anti-Semitism.