Israel plans to stay away from a United Nations' sponsored forum on racism, as Prime Minister Tzipi Livni urged other nations to avoid what she called an "anti-Israel tribunal."

UN officials, in response, said the world organization regretted Israel's decision.

The World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance will be held in Geneva in April. It is a follow-up to an earlier conference held in 2001 in Durban, South Africa.

Then, both Israel and the U.S. walked out of the meeting over texts which branded Israel a racist and apartheid state, language that was later dropped.

Livni said documents prepared for next year's forum showed it was "turning once again into an anti-Israeli tribunal, singling out and delegitimizing the State of Israel." Therefore, she said, "Israel will not participate and will not legitimize the Durban-2 conference."

© 2008 Newsroom.