NEW YORK • US President-elect Donald Trump condemned an alternative-right conference in Washington at the weekend, where some members performed a Hitler salute and yelled: "Hail Trump!" after a speech about white nationalism.

"I condemn them. I disavow and I condemn," he said. "It is not a group I want to energise. And if they are energised, I want to look into it and find out why."

Mr Trump also rejected charges by some critics that his chief White House strategist, Mr Stephen Bannon, is a racist.

He said: "I have known Steve Bannon a long time. If I thought he was a racist or alt-right... I wouldn't even think about hiring him."

Critics said Mr Bannon, a former head of the conservative Breitbart News website, made the site a forum for the alt-right, a loose grouping that rejects mainstream politics and includes neo-Nazis, white supremacists and anti-Semites.

NYTIMES, REUTERS

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