Al Jazeera

Italy has said it will not take part in a United Nations conference on racism because of "anti-Semitic language" in a draft declaration.

A spokesman for Franco Frattini, Italy’s foreign minister, said on Friday that Frattini had "decided that Italy was withdrawing its delegation" from a conference to be held in Geneva in April.

He said the declaration, which relates to the situation in the Palestinian territories, contains "unacceptable, aggressive and anti-Semitic phrases".

The European Union is seeking to remove at least five paragraphs from the draft such as the phrase that "in order to consolidate the Israeli occupation, [Palestinians] have been subjected to unlawful collective punishment, torture".

Italy is the first EU country to officially withdraw from the conference, though other nations have threatened not to attend.

US warning

The New York-based World Jewish Congress (WJC) said Italy had taken a "principled decision".

Ronald Lauder, president of the WJC, said : "Italy has given a strong signal, which should be a rallying call for other European Union countries."

Critics of the conference also object to sections of the final declaration which they say would limit freedom of religion or speech.

Majority Muslim countries, where residents are angry over cartoons and films attacking Muslims, have been campaigning for wording that would equate criticism of a religious faith with a violation of human rights.

The April 20-25 meeting is designed to review progress in fighting racism since the inaugural summit on racism in South Africa in 2001.

Israel was attacked during that meeting and anti-Israel demonstrations were held at a parallel conference of non-governmental organisations.

The US and Israel walked out over a draft resolution that criticised Israel and likened Zionism, the movement to establish and maintain a Jewish state, to racism.

Last week, the administration of Barack Obama, the US president, said Washington would stay away from this year’s meeting unless its final document is changed to drop all references to Israel and the defamation of religion.