Racism conference hangs in balance

Mary Robinson says the racism conference should focus on the future

GENEVA, Switzerland -- Diplomats are meeting to draw up an agenda for next month's World Conference Against Racism against the threat of a U.S. boycott.

The U.S. says it will stay away from the conference, which starts on August 31 in Durban, South Africa, if the agenda includes an Arab demand to pillory Israel.

A draft declaration submitted by Arab and Asian nations describes the Israeli treatment of Palestinians as a "new kind of apartheid."

Washington and some European countries have also expressed concern at an African demand for an apology and compensation from those countries that profited from colonialism and slavery.

RESOURCES U.S. at odds with the world

Monday's session, chaired by U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson, follows an intended final planning meeting in May, which ended in deadlock.

The former Irish president is hoping for a successful outcome following negotiations behind closed doors in recent weeks, but has said the conference could still be derailed over Arab attempts to revive a 1975 U.N. General Assemby resolution describing Zionism as racist.

In 1991 the United States and Israel pressured the U.N. to rescind the resolution against the movement that led to the re-establishment and support of a national homeland for Jews.

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer has described the issue as a conference-wrecker.

Robinson has insisted the conference should discuss the past, but that the emphasis should be on the future. No nation is above criticism, she told The Associated Press.

"Civil society will be taking the opportunity in Durban to remind every country that it has problems."

She also stresses that the conference offers an opportunity at the beginning of the century to define how people will relate to each other.

"It's extremely important that we find a way to address the scourges of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and racial intolerance," Robinson told AP.