NUREMBERG, June 10 - Iran coach Branko Ivankovic on Saturday refused to answer questions regarding the Iranian president's controversial views on the Holocaust, saying his team was in Germany to make friends.

Speaking on the eve of their World Cup Group D match against Mexico in Nuremberg, a city associated with the rise of the Nazis and site of their post-war trial as war criminals, Ivankovic said he was only prepared to talk about football.

Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been widely criticised in Germany and around the world in the past for questioning if the Holocaust took place and for making inflammatory remarks about Israel.

Jewish groups have called on the German government to ban him from attending the World Cup should he decide to come.

"This is not my duty," Ivankovic, a Croat, told reporters, when asked about the Iran president's remarks.

"This is a political question and it not for me to answer. You can ask me anything about the game, my team or Mexico."

When pressed on the subject he quoted the World Cup slogan: "What I would say is this: it is time to make friends".

Some 200 German right-wing extremists chanting "Foreigners Out" were pelted with apples and tomatoes on Saturday as they marched through World Cup host city Gelsenkirchen, police said.

Supporters of the extremist National Democratic Party (NPD), most sporting shaved heads and black clothes, also shouted "Solidarity with Iran".