American billionaire media mogul Oprah Winfrey says she ran into Swiss racism when a clerk at Trois Pommes, a pricey Zurich boutique, refused to show her a 38,000 US dollar handbag, telling one of the world's richest women that she wouldn't be able to afford it.

 

　　Winfrey quoted the clerk when she appeared on the US television programme "Entertainment Tonight".

 

　　"She said, 'No, no, no. You don't want to see that one. You want to see this one, because that one will cost too much, you will not be able to afford that.' And I said, 'Well, no, I really did want to see that one.' And she refused to get it! She refused to get it!"

 

　　She brought up the incident during an interview about her new movie, "Lee Daniels' The Butler," which opens next week and focuses on civil rights and race relations in the US.

 

　　According to Forbes magazine, Winfrey earned 77 million US dollars in the year ending in June.

 

　　Swiss tourism officials and the boutique owner were quick to offer apologies on Friday.

 

　　About 23 percent of Switzerland's 8 million residents are non-Swiss, and the country earned more than 39 billion US dollars from tourism in 2011.

 

　　However, the nationalistic Swiss People's Party, which has the largest number of seats in the federal parliament, claims that immigrants bring crime and social problems to a country that has been an oasis of stability even in Europe's darkest days.

 

　　In recent years, the People's Party has successfully campaigned to ban the construction of minarets in a country that has about 400,000 Muslims, and to tighten the nation's asylum law.

 

　　Swiss lawmakers also rejected a proposal to ban veils worn by some Muslim women in public.

 

　　And this week, a row broke out over plans to bar asylum-seekers living in the small town of Bremgarten from visiting public swimming pools and attending schools.