European delegates at the United Nations anti-racism conference in Durban have agreed to apologise for the slave trade. European nations among those deemed to have benefited from the slave trade will offer an apology for slavery "from a moral perspective," Dr Sipho Pityana of South Africa's Foreign Ministry said. However, Mr Pityna said this formulation would not imply any legal liability for slavery, so those making the apology would not be liable to pay reparations. In another sign of progress at the conference, Muslim states say they are prepared, reluctantly, to adopt a compromise text on racism in the Middle East.

 

Compensation fears

A week of talks in Durban - which were due to end on Friday afternoon - has been marked by bitter rows over African demands for reparations for slavery and disputes over whether Israel is an inherantly racist state.

The US and Europe have been refusing to apologise for the slave trade because they feared they would then become legally bound to pay huge sums in compensation to African countries.

The BBC's Elizabeth Blunt in Durban says it seems a formulation has been found which will enable the countries which benefited from the slave trade to express how badly they feel about slavery and in terms that the victims are willing to accept. She adds that European countries are now likely to be willing to contribute towards African and Caribbean development funds. However, diplomats say much work needs to be done before African countries will agree to a final text.

"There has been a verbal agreement. Now we have to go away and draw up the document text," European Union spokesman Koen Vervaeke told Reuters news agency. One delegate warned that the issue was "far from being resolved".

Islamic concession

Meanwhile, it appears that Muslim states have dropped their efforts to have a hard-hitting resolution on the Middle East adopted that would be heavily critical of Israel. The US and Israel walked out of the conference earlier in the week in protest against Arab attempts to adopt a resolution equating Zionism - the political movement supporting the existence of a Jewish state - with racism.

The chairman of the Islamic Conference Organisation (OIC) group, Munir Akram of Pakistan said: "We have wished to contribute to the success of the conference. That success may mean the full position of the OIC may not be reflected in the final results of the conference. But that is a sacrifice we will be making."

The proposed draft is believed to call for recognition of the Palestinian people's plight, but has removed language that branded Israel a racist state.

The draft text also tries to take into account the EU's refusal to allow the conference to take sides in the conflict. On Thursday, Palestinian Ambassador Salman el-Herfi described the text at "completely unacceptable". UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson said on Friday the final declaration of the conference would be nothing "to get excited about".

"The great achievement will be to get an agreement at all," she said.