Excerpt: Bush Says U.N. Conference on Racism Must Not Target Israel

President Bush said the United States will not participate in a coming U.N. conference on racism if the conference organizers insist on saying that Zionism is a form of racism.

"We have made it very clear, through [Secretary of State] Colin Powell's office, that we will have no representative there so long as they pick on Israel, so long as they continue to say Zionism is racism," Bush said in a news conference in Crawford, Texas, August 24.

The President added that Powell is working hard to resolve the issue. The conference is scheduled to open in Durban, South Africa, at the end of August.

Following is an excerpt from the transcript of Bush's news conference:

Q: Thank you, Mr. President. You mentioned thinking long and hard about these nominations. I'd like to ask you about another long deliberation. The United Nations conference on racism convenes in just one week. Do you want your administration represented there? If so, at what level?

And are the Zionism and reparations agenda items absolutely prohibitive to any U.S. participation?

PRESIDENT BUSH: She's referring to a conference that will be taking place in South Africa.

We have made it very clear, through Colin Powell's office, that we will have no representative there so long as they pick on Israel, so long as they continue to say Zionism is racism. If they use the forum as a way to isolate our friend and strong ally, we will not participate. The secretary of State is working hard to resolve that issue. We've made it very clear from the get-go -- I remember explaining to President Mbeki our position. As I understand, the reparations issue has been solved, at least the last information I had was that that issue has -- looks like it's been resolved.

But the fundamental question is whether or not Israel will be treated with respect at the conference, and if not, then we'll assess prior to the beginning. I'm not exactly sure where we stand at this moment. I do know what our administration's position is, and the position is we will not participate in a conference that tries to isolate Israel and denigrates Israel.

Q: Participate at any level?

PRESIDENT BUSH: That's my feeling.