Summary President spokesman says Morsi's comments 3 years ago about Jews were taken out of context.
CAIRO: The Obama administration admonished Morsi over what it called the "deeply offensive" comments and called on him to repudiate them.
Presidential spokesman Yasser Ali said Wednesday that Morsi told a U.S. Senate delegation that a distinction must be made between criticism of what he called the "racist" policies of the Israelis against the Palestinians and insults against the Jewish faith.
Last week video of the comments was broadcast on Egyptian television, showing Morsi in 2010 then a leader in the Muslim Brotherhood referring to "Zionists" as "bloodsuckers who attack Palestinians" as well as "the descendants of apes and pigs."
"The president stressed they were taken from comments on the Israeli aggression against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, and stressed the need to put the remarks in the right context," said a statement from the presidency issued after Morsi met US Senator John McCain.
According to a TV clip released by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), Morsi refers in a 2010 interview to "occupiers of Palestine" as "blood suckers and war mongers, and descendants of pigs and apes."
"We must resist them with all forms of resistance. A military resistance in Palestine against these Zionist criminals assaulting the land of Palestine and Palestinians," he says in the remarks to Quds Channel three years ago.
In Wednesday s statement, Morsi "stressed his commitment to the principles he has always insisted on, including full respect for religions, freedom of faith and religious practices, especially the heavenly religions."
Morsi also "stressed the need to differentiate between Judaism and its adherents from (those who practise) violent actions against Palestinians."
