Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, will attend next week's United Nations conference on racism in Geneva, a U.N. spokeswoman said on Tuesday.

Marie Heuze told a news briefing that Ahmadinejad was one of four heads of state who had confirmed they would attend.

Ahmadinejad is due to give a news conference on April 23 at the U.N.'s European headquarters where the conference is being held from April 22-26.

Also present will be Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, secretary- general of the 56-nation Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC).

The OIC initially tried to have defamation of religion included as racist behaviour in a final conference declaration.

The new U.S. Democratic administration of Barack Obama has yet to make up its mind whether to attend next week's meeting, dubbed Durban II.

Apart from Iran, the other three countries sending their heads of state to Durban II are East Timor, Togo and Montenegro.

Among countries which have said they will be sending their foreign ministers are Egypt, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda and Norway. The 27-nation European Union has yet to decide on a common position on whether to attend.

Reuters

Güncelleme Tarihi: 14 Nisan 2009, 16:54