Spike Lee has launched a bitter attack on fellow filmmaker Clint Eastwood for failing to include black soldiers in his films about the Battle of Iwo Jima.

The Malcolm X director insists African-American soldiers should have been included in Eastwood's Flags Of Our Fathers and Letters From Iwo Jima since hundreds took part in the 1945 battle for the Japanese island.

Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday at the Cannes Film Festival in France, Lee said, "There were many African-Americans who survived that war and who were upset at Clint for not having one (in the films). That was his version: the negro soldier did not exist. I have a different version."

Lee screened the world premiere of an eight-minute trailer for his forthcoming feature film Miracle At St Anna, a war drama about the all-black 92nd Buffalo Division, which fought against the Germans in World War II.

(This news article provided by World Entertainment News Network)