Romanian minister Dan Sova said Friday his remarks denying the Holocaust in the Balkan country were "completely wrong", after several rights groups called for his resignation.
"The remarks I made during a televised programme about the Holocaust in Romania are completely wrong," Sova said in a statement released by the government.
"Today, based on historical data, I have the certainty that there were more than 250,000 victims among the Jewish community during marshal Ion Antonescu's regime," he added, referring to the pro-Nazi ruler of Romania from 1940 to 1944.
In March, Sova claimed that "no Jews suffered on Romanian territory" during World War II, adding that "historical data show that a total of 24 Jews were killed during the Iasi pogrom by the German army."
Historians say 13,000 to 15,000 Jews from Iasi, northeast Romania, were murdered in the streets by Romanian forces or asphyxiated in "death trains" in June and July 1941 in one of the worst single Holocaust massacres.
A total of 280,000 to 380,000 Romanian and Ukrainian Jews died in Romania and the territories under its control, according to an international historians' commission headed by Nobel Peace laureate Elie Wiesel.
Sova, 39, who on Monday was appointed minister for relations with parliament, said he wanted to "back regrets and apologies with concrete actions", stressing he planned to organise history courses about the Holocaust.
Leading NGOs including the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights on Thursday called on Prime Minister Victor Ponta to dismiss Sova, saying his appointment was a "worrying sign in a country trying to assume its responsibility in the Holocaust."
In a separate letter, the Anti-Defamation League, the US-based Jewish defence group, asked Sova to "make a full and clear apology" for his comments.
“It is imperative that Mr. Sova make a full and clear public apology for the comments he made in March denying the Holocaust,” said Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director.
“A public apology by Mr. Sova and his proactive engagement in reforming the law prohibiting fascist and racist organizations will make clear to all that he and the Romanian government are committed to fighting anti-Semitism.”