Iran leader says Palestinian struggle must go on

"The experience of the past 50 years shows that compromise with the Zionist occupiers and negotiations with them will not improve the situation," Khamenei was quoted as saying by state television.

"We therefore conclude that victory will be achieved only through resistance," Khamenei said during a meeting with Khaled Meshaal, chief-in-exile of the Palestinian militant group Hamas.

Khamenei's comments followed several anti-Israel statements by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the past few weeks that have prompted censure by the U.N. Security Council and widespread condemnation by world leaders.

Ahmadinejad, a former Revolutionary Guardsman who was elected president in June, has called Israel a "tumour" which must be "wiped off the map" and expressed doubt that the Holocaust occurred.

Gholamali Haddadadel, speaker of the Iranian parliament and an ally of Ahmadinejad, said Iran wanted an investigation into the Holocaust but European countries would not allow it.

"We think that the obstacles that the Europeans put in the way of investigating this -- it is considered a crime on their side -- raise doubts about their honesty," Haddadadel told reporters in Moscow through a Russian interpreter.

"Naturally, if they gave permission for such an investigation then all questions could be clarified," he said.

Khamenei praised the uprising led by Palestinian groups such as Hamas, saying it had "demonstrated that the Palestinian people's power is greater than the capabilities of the Zionist regime and America."

"In view of the existing circumstances, the Palestinian people and the resistance groups must maintain their vigilance and continue their duty of jihad (holy war)," he said.

Israel accuses Iran of arming and funding militant groups such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad and of developing nuclear weapons. Iran says it gives only moral support to the Palestinian groups and denies any atomic arms ambitions.

(Additional reporting by Oliver Bullough in Moscow)

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