Amsterdam — Several Jewish groups voiced outrage Friday over comments attributed to Gretta Duisenberg, wife of Europe's top banker, comparing the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories with the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands.

The Centre for Information and Documentation for Israel sent a letter to Wim Duisenberg, president of the European Central Bank, asking him to clarify whether he supported his wife's pro-Palestinian statements. If so, it said, he should resign.

Mrs. Duisenberg made her latest comments while on a highly publicized visit to the West Bank, where she met Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat on Wednesday.

"The Holocaust excepted, the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories is worse than the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands," she was quoted as saying Friday in an interview with the Dutch daily Algemeen Dagblad. "The cruelty of the Israelis knows no bounds. For example, it's not unusual that they blow up Palestinian houses. The Nazis never went so far during the Dutch occupation."

More than 100,000 Jews — about 70 per cent of the Dutch Jewish community — were deported to concentration camps and killed during the German occupation of the Netherlands. Among them was the teenage diarist Anne Frank.

Earlier this week, Wim Duisenberg broke months of silence over his wife's activism after the Foreign Ministry protested that she had used a diplomatic passport for her Middle East trip. He said he "supports his wife 100 per cent."

The leader of the Jewish organization, Ronny Naftaniel, said Mrs. Duisenberg's remarks were "repulsive," and that her husband had left the impression he endorses them.

"As a husband, he can be proud of her. He can say he loves his wife. But if it comes to the content of what she's saying, he must take a stand," Mr. Naftaniel told The Associated Press. "If indeed he's backing her, then he shouldn't be president of the European Central Bank."

He said that he had hoped that Mr. Duisenberg would distance himself from the remarks in order to "stop a political process which may happen now and could lead to his removal."

A smaller Jewish activist group, the Jewish Federation of the Netherlands, said it had filed a second request for the Dutch public prosecutor to investigate Ms. Duisenberg for hate crimes.

An earlier request, made after she said she hoped to gather "six million" signatures on a pro-Palestinian petition, was rejected. The Jewish Federation said the remark was intended as a mocking reference to the number of Jews killed in the Second World War, which she denied.

Herman Loonstein, head of the Jewish Federation, said he wanted Ms. Duisenberg to be prevented from making any more public statements about Jews.

"If she were purely coming out to plead for the Palestinian side, I would understand. She's entitled to be one-sided, if that's what she thinks is right," Mr. Loonstein said. "But it appears from her words and actions that she's motivated by anti-Semitism."

Ms. Duisenberg has said she's not anti-Semitic and condemns all forms of violence, including suicide attacks, though she told Dutch television earlier this week that she had a "certain understanding" of the motivation behind them.