Text for U.N. racism meeting approved

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GENEVA, April 17 (Reuters) - Diplomats reached agreement on Friday on a declaration for next week's politically charged United Nations conference on racism, adding to the pressure on Washington and Brussels to decide whether to attend.

The 16-page text omits references to Israel, Zionism, the Middle East conflict and other divisive issues that have made Western powers shy away from the "Durban II" conference, which follows up on a 2001 racism conference in South Africa.

Israel and its ally, the United States, walked out of the Durban meeting after Arab and Muslim states tried to insert language defining Zionism as racist.

U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said she would be "very surprised" if the document meets resistance in the Geneva meeting, which Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will address on Monday.

http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSLH622755