The new US ambassador to the Netherlands apologized Saturday after denying he once said the country was in "chaos" because of Muslims and accusing an interviewer of peddling "fake news," only to be caught out by Dutch television in a bizarre exchange.

Pete Hoekstra, who starts as ambassador to The Hague next month, made the blunder while being questioned by a journalist from Dutch broadcaster NOS over remarks made at a 2015 conference.

When the reporter challenged him about referring at that event to Muslim-inspired "chaos" and to dangerous "no-go zones" in the Netherlands, Hoekstra responded: "That is actually an incorrect statement -- we would call it fake news.