The head of the new committee, identified as Mohammad Ali Ramin, an Iranian academic, said its members were "not racist or opposed to any particular group".
"Rather they are just seeking the truth to set humanity truly free," the ISNA student news agency quoted him as saying.
Condemnation
Criticism of the forum grew as its second day went ahead.
Dana Perino, a White House spokesman, said: "The gathering ... in Tehran is an affront to the entire civilised world, as well as to the traditional Iranian values of tolerance and mutual respect."
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"Anti-Semitism has no place in Europe; nor should it in any other part of the world"
Franco Frattini, EU Justice and Home Affairs Commissioner |
Tony Blair, the British prime minister, voiced his disapproval of the conference.
He said: "I think it is such a symbol of sectarianism and hatred towards people of another religion - I find it just unbelievable.
"If you're going to invite the former head of the Ku Klux Klan to a conference in Tehran which disputes the millions of people who died in the Holocaust, then what further evidence do you need to have that this regime is extreme?"
Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, said her country would never accept such a conference and would "counter it in every way we can".
She said: "It shows the danger of the situation Israel is in and in particular the threat that Israel lives under."
Franco Frattini, the EU justice and home affairs commissioner, said he wanted to "express publicly my shock and indignation" over the Tehran conference, adding: "Anti-Semitism has no place in Europe; nor should it in any other part of the world."
The Vatican reacted to news of the conference by describing the Holocaust as an "appalling tragedy to which one cannot remain indifferent".
Participants
A former Ku Klux Klan leader and French professor Robert Faurisson are among those participating in the conference.
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Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president, has
said that the Holocaust is a myth |