A diplomatic row between Sweden and Israel has intensified, with Israeli politicians urging Stockholm to condemn a newspaper article they have described as "blood libel".

In the report, published in Sweden's leading tabloid, a freelance journalist accused the Israeli army of stealing body organs from Palestinian men after killing them.

"The statements in the Swedish press were outrageous," Benyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, was quoted as telling his cabinet on Sunday.

"We are not expecting an apology from the Swedish government ... We are expecting condemnation."

The Swedish government has refused to apologise for the article published in Sweden's Aftonbladet on Monday last week, saying the country's press freedom prevents it from intervening.

Bildt visit

The controversy comes two weeks before Carl Bildt, the Swedish foreign minister, is to visit Israel, with Stockholm currently holding the rotating EU presidency.

"There is no question of cancelling or delaying this visit, but it is clear that this incident will cast a worrying shadow over meetings if it is not resolved," Yigal Palmor, an Israeli foreign ministry spokesman, said.

Previous reports had said Israel was discussing to either not accept Bildt's visit, or to receive him, but refuse to discuss any other matter than the article.

But Sweden would not obey to demands to repudiate the article or intervene to prevent such articles from being published, he wrote.

"Our country does not work like that - and neither should it.

"If I devoted myself to correcting all the strange claims in the media, I would probably not have time to devote to very much else. And criticism of one item might be taken to mean that I think everything else is good."

In the article, Donald Bostrom, a Swedish freelance journalist, writes about the shortage of body parts in Israel and makes references to the so-called New Jersey scandal earlier this summer which involved rabbis, illegal organ trading and money laundering.

Bostrom then gives what he says is his own eyewitness account of an IDF raid on a Palestinian village in 1992.

Allegedly, a rioter named Bilal Achmed Ghanaian was shot, taken away by the military and brought back dead five days later with a scar running from his stomach to his chin.

Visas frozen

A spokesman for Israel's interior ministry said it was freezing the issue of entry visas to Swedish journalists, though those already working in the country would not be
affected for now.

The newspaper commented on its story on Sunday, acknowledging that it had no proof of any organ theft but argued that the story deserved publication because of the issues it raised.

"I'm not a Nazi. I'm not an anti-Semite. I'm a responsible editing executive who gave the green light to the publication of an article because it asks a number of pertinent questions," Jan Helin, the editor-in-chief of Aftonbladet, wrote.

Ehud Barak, the Israeli defence minister, has asked the security establishment's legal adviser to look into the possibility of filing a libel suit against Bostrom.