Australia's supermarket chain Coles had made a controversial advertisement for a job by not accepting applications from Indians or Asians.

"Store requires no Indians or Asians please. Must speak English (sic)", according to the online post on Sunday.

The ad was published on the Gumtree website and was intended for cleaners in a supermarket at the Eastlands Shopping centre in Hobart.

The post was the target of several media and social networking sites for being publicly racist and they all protested by calling a boycott of the store.

The Mercury, a local newspaper, said that the ad was later removed from the site. A spokesperson from Coles had acknowledged the ad's presence on the site on Monday and claimed that the ad was placed without the knowledge of the company by a contract company responsible for cleaning its Rosny store.

"The ad was placed without Coles' knowledge and we were extremely concerned to learn of the ad and its contents," the spokesman Jim Cooper said.

The cleaning contractor should be tracked down and appropriate legal action should be taken against him, claimed Robin Banks, the Tasmania's anti-discrimination commissioner. "It's unlawful to blanket preclude a person because of their race," she said.

Gumtree is has breached the law too as the Act says you can't publish, display, etcetera, material that is discriminatory. "I've had other ads in print form and other sites brought to my attention, which I've followed up with the publisher. That tends to result in it getting pulled very quickly", Banks added.

(AW- Anil)