An Oxford professor who faces the sack after rejecting an application from an Israeli student has apologised.

Amit Duvshani, a masters student at Tel Aviv University, applied to Oxford to work towards a PhD thesis in the laboratory run by Andrew Wilkie.

But Prof Wilkie wrote an e-mail back to the 26-year-old student, telling him that there was "no way" he would take him on because he had "a huge problem" with the way Israel was treating the Palestinians.

He has since written to the student apologising and an investigation has been launched by Oxford University. A spokesman said: "Under no circumstances are we prepared to accept or condone conduct that appears to, or does, discriminate against anyone on grounds of ethnicity or nationality, whether directly or indirectly."

In his apology, Professor Wilkie wrote: "I recognise and apologise for any distress caused by my email of 23 June and the wholly inappropriate expression of my personal opinions in that document."