ROME, ITALY - MARCH 25: Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban arrives at the Capitole Hill ahead of a special summit of EU leaders to mark the 60th anniversary of the bloc's founding Treaty of Rome on March 25, 2017 in Rome, Italy. The 60th anniversary of the signing of the treaties creating the European Economic Community and the European Atomic Energy Community the first major structural steps toward creating the European Union. (Photo by Franco Origlia/Getty Images)

The Hungarian President Viktor Orban has been criticised for hosting a known anti-LGBT group in Budapest.

Orban hosted the International Organisation of the Family (IOF), a US group which has campaigned against same-sex marriage.

The group was also previously linked to Russian President Vladimir Putin on anti-LGBT legislation passed in that country.

Orban spoke at the IOF’s annual conference, titled ‘Building Family-Friendly Nations: Making Families Great Again’.

The Southern Poverty Law Center has classified the organisation as a hate group.

It has also been described as the Human Rights Campaign as “a dangerous group of activists spreading anti-LGBT rhetoric and promoting laws and policies that criminalise LGBT people.”

As well as attacking LGBT people’s rights, many members of the IOF are thought to support theories of white supremacy.

In his speech, Orban said: “Our homeland, our common homeland, Europe, is standing to lose in the population contest of the big civilisations.”

He added: “It’s important to say that it’s a national interest to restore natural reproduction. Not one interest among others — but the only one. It’s a European interest too. It is the European interest.

“Europe is old, rich and weak. The part of the world that released more and more crowds of people in the recent years is young, poor, and strong,”

Orban, a Eurosceptic was last year condemned by MEPs over his decision to block a Europe-wide agreement on LGBT rights.

The Dutch government, which then held the EU Presidency, in 2016 tabled a draft agreement at the Council of the European Union, which called on the European Commission to tackle homophobic and transphobic discrimination, promote measures to advance LGBTI equality, and step up efforts to collect data on the treatment of LGBTI citizens.

However, the agreement was vetoed by the representatives for Hungary – the same day it blocked a proposed deal with Turkey on the migration crisis.