POLICE in the southern Swedish region of Skaane are under fire after media revealed that racist terms were used during a police training exercise.

During a recent training course, instructors told police to use the fictitious names "Neger Niggersson" (Negro Niggersson) and "Oskar Neger" (Oskar Negro), the regional Sydsvenskan newspaper reported.

Several police attending the course filed a complaint, but no internal investigation was carried out, it said.

The head of Sweden's National Police Board, Bengt Svenson, lamented the incident, telling the Dagens Nyheter newspaper on Sunday that he would appoint an independent committee to look into racism among police in Skaane.

"This is totally reprehensible," Svenson said. "We're going to appoint an independent person, or people, to investigate this and help Skaane police work on values."

The incident came to light just days after news media revealed that Skaane police covering riots in the immigrant neighbourhood of Rosengaard in December were caught on audio tapes referring to immigrant youths as "f---ing immigrants" and "f---ing primitive beasts".

Swedish Justice Minister Beatrice Ask told Dagens Nyheter she was "very concerned and upset," and she would ask police to report about efforts to combat racism within their ranks.