Bernie Ecclestone, who holds the commercial rights to Formula One auto racing, said Monday he regrets the upset caused by his praise of Adolf Hitler's leadership, but insisted he would not be forced to resign. In a telephone interview with the Associated Press, Ecclestone said he had not intended to invoke Hitler's name in the interview with London's Times on Saturday.

In the Times article, Ecclestone was quoted as saying, "In a lot of ways, terrible to say this I suppose, but apart from the fact that Hitler got taken away and persuaded to do things that I have no idea whether he wanted to do or not, he was in the way that he could command a lot of people, able to get things done."

Denis MacShane, a Labour member of Parliament who chairs an all-party inquiry into anti-Semitism in Britain, told ITV News on Sunday, "If Mr. Ecclestone seriously thinks Hitler had to be persuaded to kill six million Jews, invade every European country and bomb London, then he knows neither history and shows a complete lack of judgment."

In the AP interview, Ecclestone said, "He brought a country that was bankrupt into a country that was very strong and that was really demonstrating what someone could do if they had the power and didn't have to keep back and referring every five minutes. The trouble with politicians and democracy is they all the time have to compromise, they can't do what they want to do because there is somebody in opposition. It certainly takes a lot longer to do something. I regret that it didn't come out like that, upsetting people is the last thing I wanted to do, obviously."

Ecclestone dismissed calls from the World Jewish Congress that he should resign, and questioned the suitability of its president, Ronald Lauder, who said that Ecclestone is no longer fit to serve in his role. A statement issued by Lauder also called on teams, drivers and host countries of the F1 series to end their co-operation with the 78-year-old.

The World Jewish Congress was formed in 1936 to mobilize the world against the onslaught of Hitler's Nazi party. "It's a pity they didn't sort the banks out ... [if] they have a lot of influence everywhere," Ecclestone said in the AP interview, referring to the global economic crisis. He did not elaborate.

Ecclestone said he was not aware that the governor of Germany's Baden-Wuerttemberg state, Guenther Oettinger, had cancelled a planned meeting between the two at this weekend's German Grand Prix because of Ecclestone's comments in the Times.