Growing number boycott UN race summit

AUSTRALIA and the Netherlands yesterday joined a growing Western boycott of a United Nations conference on racism over fears it will be used as a platform for unfair criticism of Israel.

The United States announced on Saturday it would stay away, citing “objectionable” language in a text prepared for the Geneva summit, which Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will address on its opening day today.

Canada and Israel have said they would sit out the meeting, which the United Nations organised to help heal the wounds of its last major race summit in 2001.