BUCHAREST, Sept 18, 2008 (AFP) - More than one in 10 people living in OSCE countries are anti-Semitic, a top official of Europe's leading security body said Thursday at a conference looking at ways to fight anti-Semitism.

Education was key in combatting such prejudice, said Gert Weisskirchen, the Personal Representative on Combatting anti-Semitism for the OSCE's chairman-in-office.

'Across the whole OSCE area, from Canada to Russia, a constant 10-15 percent of the population have an anti-Semitic attitude,' Weisskirchen told AFP at the start of a congress here.

'The figures rises or falls, particularly when there are events that cause debate, such as the war between Israel and the Hezbollah in 2006,' Weisskirchen said of anti-Semitism within the 56-member Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe.

'But there's a constant figure of 10-15 percent,' he added.

It was vital to investigate the role countries in central and eastern Europe played in the Holocaust, he added.

'In some countries, there's no clear comprehension about what the Holocaust was and that people were involved in it in certain regions, not only as victims, but as perpetrators.'

The one-day conference in Bucharest is being attended by delegates from 26 countries, including France, Russia, Germany and the United States, as well as EU representatives and international organisations.

Organised by the Romanian ministry of foreign affairs in cooperation with the Elie Wiesel Institute, it aims to address legislative, educational and communication measures to combat anti-Semitism.