JERUSALEM - Israel has praised a letter sent by French President Jacques Chirac to Dr Mahathir Mohamad condemning comments made by the Malaysian Prime Minister last week that Jews rule the world, an Israeli foreign ministry spokesman told AFP .

"The Foreign Minister (Silvan Shalom) praised a letter that Chirac sent to the Malaysian prime minister condemning his statements. We see in that letter, a reiteration of Chirac's known position against any kind of antisemitism," spokesman Jonathan Peled said late Sunday.

"From our point of view, the incident is over," the spokesman said.

Prior to publication of his letter , Chirac was subject to a barrage of criticism from Israel, where he was accused of having blocked an EU condemnation of Mahathir's comments.

Although EU leaders attacked Mahathir's words at a summit in Brussels, no reference was made to his comments at the summit's conclusion, provoking accusations in Israel that Chirac had blocked an EU resolution.

Matter settled

Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom joined the assault, telling the cabinet of "his disappointment regarding President Chirac's refusal to condemn the Malaysian prime minister's anti-Semitic remarks", a ministry spokesman said earlier.

However, following a flurry of communication during the afternoon between Chirac's diplomatic advisor and Israeli foreign mininstry officials, the incident was cleared up, Peled said.

He said it was possible there had been a misunderstanding over comments allegedly made by Chirac at the Brussels summit.

Placatory comments were also made by the Israeli ambassador to France Nissim Zvili, in an interview with Radio France Internationale (RFI).

"President Chirac did nothing to torpedo a European decision condemning this hateful, antisemitic remarks by the Malaysian prime minister, that must be completely clear," he told the radio station.

"Whether this was a misunderstanding or not, we are content to see President Chirac's letter condemning Mr Mohamad's remarks," Peled said. "There are no hard feelings."

Ruling by proxy

At the summit the Organisation of Islamic Conference in Malaysia last week Mahathir said: "Today the Jews rule this world by proxy. They get others to fight and die for them."

He added that 1.3 billion Muslims could not be defeated by a few million Jews.

In his letter to Mahathir, Chirac said: "Although you and your government have taken care to rebut any accusation of anti-semitism, these remarks can only be condemned by those who remember the Holocaust (the murder of six million Jews by Nazi Germany)." - AFP