The US yesterday confirmed that the Secretary of State, Mr Colin Powell, will not attend the world conference against racism in Durban, South Africa, due to the anti-Israeli tone in the programme and advance debates.
"It is clear to us now that the secretary will not go to this conference, that the secretary will not attend this conference," said the State Department spokesman Mr Richard Boucher.
"All along, we've stated our concern about several critical elements, and you heard very clearly from the president on Friday that the elements that most concerned us and bothered us at this point was the offensive language about Israel and the singling out of Israel in many of the conference documents."
A senior State Department official had said earlier that an all-out US boycott of the meeting, threatened as recently as last week by President Bush, was still being considered. "We will have no representative there so long as they pick on Israel, as long as they continue to say Zionism is racism," Mr Bush said on Friday, calling Israel "our friend and strong ally".
Mr Boucher said yesterday the US was working with "some others to see to what extent the problems . . . might be remedied" at this stage.
He said Washington was still considering "the exact nature and level of our representation". "We haven't made the final decision on the nature and level of our participation, if any."
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mrs Mary Robinson, said that UN delegates had agreed to keep wording equating Zionism with racism off the agenda.