A United Nations conference on fighting worldwide racism and xenophobia opens in Geneva on Monday with the US still undecided as of yesterday about whether or not to attend.

The controversy over US participation in the so-called Durban Review Conference has seen Barack Obama, US president, come under pressure from pro-Israel groups to boycott a rerun of what was branded an anti-Semitic "hate-fest" at a previous summit in South Africa in 2001.