Director Oliver Stone has expressed his “regret” for controversial comments in which he said “the Jewish domination of the media” was the reason the Holocaust continued to be so widely discussed.

Mr Stone had told an interviewer that he wanted Hitler’s atrocities to be viewed in context.

He said: “Hitler did far more damage to the Russians than the Jewish people, 25 or 30m.”

“Hitler was a Frankenstein but there was also a Dr Frankenstein. German industrialists, the Americans and the British. He had a lot of support.”

But following outrage about his remarks, the filmmaker apologised. He said: "In trying to make a broader historical point about the range of atrocities the Germans committed against many people, I made a clumsy association about the Holocaust, for which I am sorry.”

The director, known for films including Wall Street and the Vietnam drama Platoon, had also said in the interview that the Jews are “hard workers” and blamed them for having “f----- up United States foreign policy for years".

He said: "They stay on top of every comment, the most powerful lobby in Washington".

But Mr Stone said his comments were wrong. “Jews obviously do not control media or any other industry.

“That the Holocaust is still a very important, vivid and current matter today is, in fact, a great credit to the very hard work of a broad coalition of people committed to the remembrance of this atrocity - and it was an atrocity."

The left-wing director gave the interview to promote his documentary on Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.