Wellington - New Zealand is joining the United States, Canada, the Netherlands, Italy, Israel and Australia in boycotting a UN conference on racism this week in Geneva, Foreign Minister Murray McCully announced Monday.

He said the scheduled follow-up to the "extremely contentious" 2001 World Conference Against Racism in Durban, South Africa, was "not likely to advance the cause of race relations at the international level."

McCully said the original conference "gave rise to expressions of anti-Israeli views, which undermined its focus on genuine anti-racism initiatives.

"I am not satisfied that the wording emerging from preparatory discussions will prevent the review conference from descending into the same kind of rancorous and unproductive debate that took place in 2001," he said.

"It is a pity that this should have been the case," McCully said. "Combating racism and related intolerance is an important cause and one to which New Zealand attaches the highest importance."

New Zealand Race Relations Commissioner Joris de Bres, who is at the conference representing the New Zealand Human Rights Commission, said he was extremely disappointed by the withdrawal.

Chief Human Rights Commissioner Roslyn Noonan said there was nothing in the programme of action that any New Zealander would disagree with.

"I can't find anything for example that smacks of anti-Semitism - quite the reverse," she said. (dpa)