GENEVA, (AFP) -UN delegates have agreed to keep wording equating Zionism to racism out of texts for the World Conference Against Racism, but have failed to agree on other thorny key issues like slavery and colonialism.
Two weeks of talks to negotiate draft talks for adoption at the conference in Durban, South Africa later this month ended late Friday.
The United States and European Union have rejected any move to include language suggesting that Zionism, the movement which led to the creation of the state of Israel, is a form of racism in the draft documents.
They also reject what they say is anti-Israeli language, pointing out that the conference, which opens in the eastern South African city on August 31 and runs until September 7, should not single out any country.
Washington has threatened to boycott the event if what it calls "inflammatory language" on the Middle East remains on the agenda.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson told a news briefing on Friday that proposed language "raising the approach of equating Zionism with racism" had caused great concern.
"It was, I think, very welcome that at a certain stage during this prepcom (preparatory committee) it was agreed that elements giving rise to that were not appropriate in our preparations for Durban," she told reporters.
But Arab countries argue that they never introduced the equation of Zionism equalling racism into the draft texts, saying it was "disinformation" that the wording had been introduced.
A UN resolution defining Zionism as a form of racism was adopted in 1975 but rescinded in 1991.
Arab states do, however, insist that the Durban conference deal with the situation in the Middle East, although no agreement was reached before formal negotiations ended late Friday.
"It's a question of dealing with the very strong deterioriation in the situation of human rights in occupied Palestine, which engenders frustration and repeated violence," Algerian Ambassador Mohamed Salah Dembri, who is chairing the Arab group at the talks, told reporters earlier in the day. (Read photo caption below)
In their latest proposal, Arab countries and the Organisation for the Islamic Conference insist on terms such as "racist practices of the Occupying Power" and "racial discrimination against the Palestinians as well as other inhabitants of the Arab occupied territories".
For Israel, and its main ally the United States, the language remains "unacceptable", diplomatic sources said.
US Congressman Tom Lantos, a democrat and member of the US delegation at the Geneva talks, said Thursday that unless wording was "purged" of anti-Israeli language it would be "inappropriate" for Secretary of State Colin Powell to "dignify the conference with his presence."
Norway, which helped broker the Oslo peace accords between the Israelis and Palestinians in 1993, is expected to try to present a compromise to break the deadlock.
Meanwhile, delegates failed to agree on how to deal with African demands for an apology and some form of reparation to be paid for the past wrongs of slavery and colonialism.
Former colonial powers refuse to have the finger pointed at them, and while they accept a move to issue a formal statement of regret over the practice, they refuse to apologise, diplomatic sources said.
"Another problem relates to whether if there is an apology this gives legal entitlement that can add to a possibility of litigation in national courts to seek monetary compensation," Robinson told reporters.
But she said there had been "considerable progress" in talks on the subject and added, "I think that if that progress can be maintained this issue can be resolved."
Representatives of Africans and their descendants in the Americas said here on Friday that they would prefer to see the upcoming global anti-racism conference fail if it does not produce an apology for the slave trade.
Although the work to prepare a draft declaration and programme of action formally ended on Friday, negotiations are expected to continue in an informal way in the weeks running up to the opening of the conference on August 31.
PHOTO CAPTIONS:
Mohamed Salah Dembri, right, U.N. Algerian ambassador in Geneva talks to the Palestinian representative Nabil Ramlawi during a session of the Preparatory Talks of the World Conference Against Racism in Geneva, Switzerland on Thursday, Aug. 9, 2001. Facing a midnight deadline, the United States and Arab negotiators remained deadlocked Friday, Aug. 10, 2001 over proposed wording for documents to be adopted by the upcoming World Conference Against Racism, diplomats said. (AP Photo/Donald Stampfli)