Brazil's president blamed "white people with blue eyes" for the world economic crisis and said it was wrong that developing countries should pay for mistakes made in richer countries, sparking accusations of racism.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who has criticized the European Union and the US for tariffs on products from developing countries and has advocated a bigger say for developing countries in decisions on the world economy, pointed a finger to Western bankers.

"This crisis was caused by the irrational behavior of white people with blue eyes, who thought they knew everything and now show they know nothing," Lula da Silva said after a meeting with the UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown in the country's capital of Brasilia.

Lula da Silva's comments were widely reported in the press and drew charges of racism from message boards and CNBC viewers.