Several hundred gypsy representatives from across Europe have gathered at the former Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp complex to condemn ethnic cleansing and commemorate the mass murder of gypsies by the Nazis during World War Two.

About 600 members of gypsy, or Roma, communities, as well as Polish state officials and foreign diplomats, walked in silence to a memorial amid the foundations of Birkenau's Block 28 where, 55 years ago to the day, over 3,000 gypsy prisoners - mainly women and children - were gassed to death.

Between 1941 and 1944, some 23,000 European Roma were transported to the Auschwitz death camp by the Nazis. Only 2,000 survived.

Ethnic cleansing

During the ceremony, Roman Kwiatkowski, head of Poland's Roma association, called for an end to modern-day ethnic cleansing in the Balkans.

He also appealed for the protection of displaced Kosovar gypsies.

Mr Kwiatkowski says that thousands of Roma living in Kosovo have fled their homes, fearing attacks by ethnic Albanians, who accuse Kosovar gypsies of co-operating with Serbs in war crimes.

"We cannot remain indifferent to intolerance, discrimination and ethnic cleansing against the Roma in Kosovo," he said.

Of the roughly one million gypsies living in Europe prior to World War Two, historians estimate that the Nazis and their allies exterminated over half.