A gathering in Iran billed as a conference to “debate” the Nazi annihilation of six million Jews continued on its second day to spark outrage in the West, drawing fierce criticism today from European leaders, the Vatican and the White House.

The hail of criticism came as President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told participants of the conference in Tehran today that a committee should be set up to investigate whether the Holocaust occurred. Among the more than 60 participants in the conference was the former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke, who asserted today that Israel feared an inquiry into the Holocaust more than it did the prospect of Iranian nuclear weapons.

The Vatican today called the Holocaust an “immense tragedy” for all humanity, and it issued a statement that there was no doubt that the Holocaust took place and that it must serve as a warning for people to respect the rights of others. The statement used the Hebrew word for the Holocaust, Shoah, and expressed “great compassion” for what happened to the Jews during World War II, according to Agence France-Presse.