S. Africa tries to save race talks

DURBAN, South Africa (CNN) -- South Africa is trying to salvage a U.N. racism conference by drawing up a new text on the issue of the Middle East, according to the European Union.

The United States and Israel withdrew from the United Nations' World Conference Against Racism on Monday in protest at the branding of Israel as a "racist" state in conference draft texts.

European diplomats also said the language was unacceptable to the EU, Reuters reported.

"The 15 (EU states) have mandated me to accept the proposal made by my colleague (South African Foreign Minister Nkosazana) Dlamini-Zuma, which consists in drafting a completely new text that could lead to consensus," Belgian Foreign Minister Louis Michel told a news conference.

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Michel, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, declined to take any questions.

But an EU spokesman said the South African minister planned to invite a special group -- including members of the EU -- to work overnight on the document. He declined to say whether the EU could follow the example of the United States and withdraw if a compromise were not reached.

The spokesman said that South Africa would take as its starting point a Norwegian proposal which had earlier been rejected by Arab states pressing for a condemnation of Israel for its treatment of Palestinians in the occupied territories.

The Norwegian wording, which has not been released, contained some reference to the Palestinian issue and had been accepted by Washington.

The U.S. and Israel withdrew after a draft of the conference's final declaration denounced "practices of racial discrimination against the Palestinians as well as other inhabitants of the Arab occupied territories" and said Zionism was "based on racial superiority."

Negotiations to soften those statements failed, U.S. delegates said, and Secretary of State Colin Powell -- who did not attend the conference -- assailed its "hateful language" as he announced the U.S. withdrawal Monday.

Israeli officials followed suit shortly afterward, with Foreign Minister Shimon Peres calling the conference "a farce."

"We are talking about human rights," he said. "The first human right is to remain alive, and Israel is in danger. We are exercising the most important human right."

The Palestinian-Israeli dispute has overshadowed discussion of other issues that conference organizers say should top the agenda, inclduing contemporary slavery, caste discrimination, rights of indigenous peoples and gender discrimination.

Peres said Israel had been unfairly labelled as a colonialist nation by members of the conference, and he accused the Arab League of leading a concerted effort to single out Israel for blame in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Palestinians accused the U.S. delegation of being unwilling to compromise in Norwegian-led negotiations aimed at breaking the impasse. Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat said the United States should focus on "stopping Israeli practices" against the Palestinians in its occupation of the West Bank, not the language that describes its practices.

Mary Robinson, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, said the NGO declaration's language was regrettable and would almost certainly not become part of the main conference's final statement.