Icelandic PM walks out of interview over Panama Papers allegations

The Icelandic prime minister stormed out of an interview after being questioned over his involvement in a tax evasion scheme said to implicate many of the world's richest and most powerful people.

When asked about a company now owned by his wife, PM Sigmundur Gunnlaugsson shifted uncomfortably in his seat, stuttering several excuses, before walking out of the interview.

"What are you trying to make up here?" Gunnlaugsson asks the Swedish journalist, when questioned about his ownership of offshore shell company, Wintris.

"This is totally inappropriate."

The leaked documents known as the Panama Papers reveal that in 2007 Gunnlaugsson and his wife, Anna Sigurlaug Pálsdóttir acquired Wintris through one of Iceland's three major banks, Landsbanki and used it as a shell company to invest funds.

Despite stepping into power following the worst financial crisis to ever affect the country, Gunnlaugsson did not report his ownership of Wintris.

Following his 2009 election he sold his half of the company to his wife for $1.

The Panama Papers, allegedly detail 214,000 offshore entities of about 140 political figures including the president of Ukraine, the king of Saudi Arabia, the prime ministers of Iceland and Pakistan, and the children of the president of Azerbaijan.

Geir Haarde stepped down as Icelandic PM in 2009 following the collapse of the country's currency and banking system as a result of the GFC and the fall of the nation's three major banks.