Comments reported to have been made at reception for second world war veterans at the museum in Halifax's docks in Canada

Prince Charles was reported to have likened the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, to Adolf Hiter during a conversation with a member of the public while on a visit to Canada.

The prince, who is on a four-day trip to Canada, was reported to have made the comments at a reception for second world war veterans and their families at the museum in Halifax's docks.

"And now Putin is doing just about the same as Hitler," he was said to have told Marienne Ferguson, a museum volunteer who fled to Canada with her Jewish family when she was just 13.

A spokesperson for Clarence House said: "We would not comment on private conversations. It was a private conversation at a reception for war veterans."

The Daily Mail reported that Ferguson said: "'I had finished showing him the exhibit and talked with him about my own family background and how I came to Canada.

"The prince then said 'And now Putin is doing just about the same as Hitler'."

"I must say that I agree with him and am sure a lot of people do. I was very surprised that he made the comment as I know they [members of the royal family] aren't meant to say these things but it was very heartfelt and honest."

Charles commended Canada's contribution to the allied victory in the second world war as he and his wife, the duchess of Cornwall, were greeted by hundreds of people on Monday in Halifax on the first full day of a short visit there.

Canada's involvement in the second world war was a central theme of the royal couple's day-long tour of Halifax, a naval city where 500,000 military personnel embarked on a trans-Atlantic journey to serve in Europe.

The prince later met with military families at an armed forces resource center and Halifax's Pier 21, home of Canada's National Museum of Immigration, where they met war brides. Canada's government estimates about 48,000 young women, most of them from Britain, married Canadian servicemen during the second world war.

A visit some days ago to Estonia by the prince's youngest son, Harry, was viewed by many commentators as a sign of western support amid fears of a resurgent Russia in a region where tensions have risen in the wake of the crisis in Ukraine. Harry also met with Estonian, British and US service personnel involved a major Nato training exercise.