Najib Abdul Razak has denied the allegation that he held a meeting with Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during the United Nations (UN) General Assembly in New York recently.

The prime minister said he had bumped into the leader at a door in the UN headquarters after Netanyahu finished speaking and he (Najib) was after that.

"I did not meet him... just bumped into him at the entrance of the UN because he spoke before me. Then it was my turn," he said in reply to questions about a photograph of him spread on the social media, purportedly meeting Netanyahu.

Najib was speaking at the end of his three-day working visit to Italy which began on Friday.

He said at that time, Netanyahu was waiting for his car.

"So we shook hands. There was nothing to it, it was not a meeting.

"It was sheer coincidence I bumped into him at the entrance of the United Nations. This can be confirmed by the foreign minister and our ambassador in the US and Malaysia's permanent representative in the UN," he said.

Najib said if he had a meeting with Israel's prime minister, it would surely in more formal circumstances.

He said the public should be able to differentiate between what was the truth and what was not.

"Anything can be viral. When you (let something go) viral they give wrong impression of the truth. This is the danger of social media," he said.

- Bernama