Judge Richard Goldstone has been invited to visit Israel, following his admission that he did not stand by his damning report on Israeli military conduct during the Gaza war.

According to Israel's Interior Minister Eli Yishai, Judge Goldstone has accepted the offer, which would include a tour of southern Israeli communities affected by the barrage of rockets from Gaza.

The South African Jewish jurist's report, published in September 2009, found both Israel and Hamas guilty of war crimes and accused Israel of using disproportionate force.

But in a newspaper article last week Judge Goldstone said that had he known at the time what he knew now "the Goldstone Report would have been a different document".

He also admitted that Israel had not deliberately targeted civilians and that the UN Human Rights Council (HRC), the group that commissioned the report, had a "history of bias against Israel" that could not be doubted".

Israel called on the report to be immediately cancelled in the wake of his confession, but according to the HRC, Judge Goldstone has not yet submitted a request to officially retract it.