Israel will stay away from an international anti-racism conference next year, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said on Wednesday, saying the meeting was certain to become `an anti-Israel tribunal.`

`Israel will not participate and will not legitimise the (Durban) Review Conference, which will be used as a platform for anti-Israel and anti-Semitic activity,` Livni told a conference of North American Jewish leaders in Jerusalem.

The April 2009 meeting in Geneva was called by the UN General Assembly as a follow-up to a controversial conference held in Durban in 2001 which ended in acrimony amidst accusations of anti-Semitism.

Livni said there was no indication things would go better at the 2009 gathering than they had in Durban.

`Despite our efforts and those of friendly countries, for whose position we are grateful, the conference appears to be heading once again towards becoming an anti-Israeli tribunal, which has nothing to do with fighting racism,` she said.

She cited a paper the Asian Group submitted to the preparatory committee which she said `reproduces, almost word by word, the rhetoric of the Tehran Planning Meeting in 2001, a meeting which led to the Durban 1 farce.`

`Once again extremist Arab and Muslim states wish to control the content of the conference and derail it from its original mission,` she said.

UN Human Rights Commissioner Navanetham Pillay in September urged Israel, the United States and other countries not to boycott the conference, saying the hopes of many victims of intolerence could be dashed `should differences be allowed to become pretexts for inaction.`

But Livni on Wednesday urged `the international community not to participate in a conference which seeks to legitimise hatred and extremism under the banner of the `fight against racism`.`