Mr Ahmadinejad was greeted by the Swiss President after landing in Geneva on Sunday where he was due to address a United Nations conference on racism today.

Mr Ahmadinejad, who has described the Holocaust as a "myth" and vowed repeatedly to "wipe Israel off the map", was expected to launch another inflammatory attack on Israel when he addressed delegates on the opening day of the conference.

The Israeli Foreign Minister, Avigdor Lieberman, branded Mr Ahmadinejad a racist and expressed outrage at the special treatment accorded him.

Mr Lieberman also questioned why the conference's opening day was being held on the eve of Holocaust Memorial Day. "The fact that a racist like Ahmadinejad is the main speaker proves the true aim and nature of the conference," he said.

The Deputy Foreign Minister, Danny Ayalon, described the Swiss President's meeting with Mr Ahmadinejad as pathetic and an embarrassment to Switzerland.

"It is fair to say that the meeting between the Iranian President and the Swiss raised more than a few eyebrows," an Israeli Foreign Ministry official said.

"We are extremely unhappy about it and our ambassador Ilan Elgar has been recalled for consultations," the official said.

"We understand the Swiss are obliged to host the conference as part of their UN commitments, we understand that the Iranian President has to be given a visa. What we don't understand is why the Swiss President greeted Ahmadinejad on arrival."

The Geneva meeting is a follow-up to the UN's first conference on racism in Durban, South Africa, in 2001, and is meant to take stock of progress in fighting racial discrimination, xenophobia and intolerance.

But after the first conference was dominated by criticism of Israel, in particular by Arab and Muslim nations, Israeli officials waged a campaign against the Durban II meeting, arguing it would be similarly marred by anti-Israel sentiment.

Australia joined the US, Canada, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Germany and Poland in boycotting the conference because of concerns it would be used as a forum to bash Israel.

"Regrettably, we cannot be confident that the review conference will not again be used as a platform to air offensive views, including anti-Semitic views," said Australia's Foreign Minister, Stephen Smith.

The US President, Barack Obama, defended his decision not to send a delegation, saying that despite progress in negotiations in recent weeks, anti-Israel language in a draft final communique was "often times completely hypocritical and counterproductive".

"If we have a clean start, a fresh start, we're happy to go" to a future meeting, he told reporters in Trinidad.

Last night the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, thanked those countries that had boycotted the summit.

"Six million of our people were slaughtered in the Holocaust. Not everyone has learnt the lesson ," he said. "While we commemorate them, a conference purporting to be against racism will convene in Switzerland. The guest of honour is a racist, a Holocaust-denier who makes no secret of his intention of wiping Israel off the face of the earth."

The UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, decried Western nations for boycotting the conference. "Some nations, who by rights should be helping to forge a path to a better future, are not here," he said.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, said she was disappointed the US was not attending.

- with Agence France-Presse