The leader of the French far right, National Front, Jean-Marie Le Pen has qualified his infamous statement that the holocaust was a mere detail of history.

The comment has led to him being heavily fined in France and prompted an investigation in Germany after he is alledged to have repeated the statement in Munich last year.

In his latest remarks in the newspaper, France-Soir, Mr Le Pen said the holocaust was a detail but as he put it, a monstrous and scandalous detail which needed to be recorded in history.

Mr Le Pen's National Front won about fifteen per-cent of the vote in the last national elections