Nearly one in eight Italians believes the Holocaust is a Jewish invention, according a poll published yesterday.

Twelve percent of respondents agreed when asked whether "Jews are lying when they maintain that Nazism exterminated millions of their kind is gas chambers".

The finding emerged from a survey that revealed continuing anti- semitic prejudice in Italy, where many people deny fascism had any responsibility for the deaths of Jews.

But historians say that Benito Mussolini laid the ground for deportations to concentration camps, and actively supported them.

Yesterday´s poll, published in Corriere della Sera, also found 31% felt Jews should stop "playing the victim". Nearly one in eight Italians believes the Holocaust is a Jewish invention, according a poll published yesterday.