His comments have been criticised by many, including his own allies

He claims the then Mufti of Jerusalem Haj Amin al-Husseini was at fault

Angela Merkel stressed Germany was responsible for the Holocaust after Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu sparked a storm by claiming a Palestinian leader gave Hitler the idea of exterminating Jews.

The German Chancellor, who hosted Netanyahu for talks yesterday, said: 'Germany abides by its responsibility for the Holocaust.'

'We don't see any reason to change our view of history.'

The Israeli Prime Minister had provoked controversy hours before his visit to Germany by saying the former Palestinian Muslim elder in Jerusalem convinced Hitler to carry out the Final Solution.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and German Chancellor Angela Merkel hold a news conference at the Chancellery in Berlin. Angela Merkel stressed Germany was responsible for the Holocaust after Netanyahu sparked a storm by claiming a Palestinian leader gave Hitler the idea of exterminating Jews

In a speech to the Zionist Congress late on Tuesday, Benjamin Netanyahu referred to a series of attacks by Muslims against Jews in Palestine during the 1920s.

He claimed they were instigated by the then Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini.

Husseini famously flew to visit Hitler in Berlin in 1941, and Netanyahu said that meeting was instrumental in the Nazi leader's decision to launch a campaign to annihilate the Jews.

'Hitler didn't want to exterminate the Jews at the time, he wanted to expel the Jews,' Netanyahu said in the speech.

'And Haj Amin al-Husseini went to Hitler and said, 'If you expel them, they'll all come here.'

''So what should I do with them?' Netanyahu said Hitler asked the mufti, who responded: 'Burn them.'

Netanyahu, whose father was an eminent historian, was quickly harangued by opposition politicians and experts on the Holocaust who said he was distorting the historical record.

Palestinian officials said Netanyahu appeared to be absolving Hitler of the murder of six million Jews in order to lay the blame on Muslims. Twitter was awash with criticism.

The Israeli Prime Minister had provoked controversy hours before his visit to Germany by saying the former Palestinian Muslim elder in Jerusalem convinced Hitler to carry out the Final Solution

Saeb Erekat, the PLO's secretary general and chief Palestinian negotiator with the Israelis, said: 'It is a sad day in history when the leader of the Israeli government hates his neighbour so much that he is willing to absolve the most notorious war criminal in history, Adolf Hitler, of the murder of six million Jews.

'Mr Netanyahu should stop using this human tragedy to score points for his political end.'

Even Netanyahu's defence minister, close ally Moshe Yaalon, said the prime minister had got it wrong.

'It certainly wasn't (Husseini) who invented the Final Solution,' Yaalon told Israel's Army Radio. 'That was the evil brainchild of Hitler himself.'

It is not clear what sources Netanyahu was relying on for his comments.

A 1947 book 'The Mufti of Jerusalem' and a newspaper report at the time said a former Hitler deputy had testified at the Nuremberg war crimes trials that Husseini had plotted with the Nazi leader to rid Europe of its Jews.

Husseini was sought for war crimes but never appeared at the Nuremberg proceedings and later died in Cairo.

More than two years prior to meeting Husseini in 1941 (pictured) Adolf Hitler had already expressed his determination to exterminate the Jewish race

Experts have denounced Netanyahu's claim and said Hitler's (left) idea to rid the world of Jews was a 'central theme' in his ideology long before he met Husseini (right)

Regardless, more than two years prior to the meeting between Hitler and Husseini, in January 1939, Hitler had addressed the Reichstag and talked clearly about his determination to exterminate the Jewish race.

Dina Porat, a professor at Tel Aviv University and the chief historian of Yad Vashem, Israel's Holocaust museum, told Israel Radio: 'To say that the mufti was the first to mention to Hitler the idea to kill or burn the Jews is not correct.

'The idea to rid the world of the Jews was a central theme in Hitler's ideology a long, long time before he met the mufti.'

Porat and others pointed out that the murder of the Jews began in June 1941. Even if the mufti wanted the Final Solution to be expanded, he wasn't the one who came up with the idea.

'For somebody who knows something about history and grew up in the house of historian Professor Benzion Netanyahu, he should know well,' Porat said of the prime minister.