South Africa is seeking to defuse tension over the US threat to boycott this month's UN conference on racism if condemnation of Zionism and demands for reparations for the slave trade are placed on the agenda.
At the same time South African leaders, including Deputy President Jacob Zuma and the Foreign Minister, Ms Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, have expressed regret at the boycott threat and contended that no restrictions should be imposed on discussions.
The presidential spokesman, Mr Bhkei Khumalo, has confirmed that the US Secretary of State, Mr Colin Powell, raised US concerns about attempts to include condemnation of Zionism on the agenda at his meetings with President Thabo Mbeki in South Africa and in the US.
South Africa will seek a formulation which is acceptable to all, Mr Khumalo said. The week-long conference is due to start in South Africa's port city of Durban on August 31st.
He declines to elaborate. But, judging from comments by South Africa's Ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Mr George Nene - who is involved in discussion to defuse the crisis over the Zionism-equals-racism stand taken by some Arab and Asian nations - South Africa is in favour of discussions of the Middle East conflict which do not seek to resuscitate the discarded 1975 UN General Assembly resolution equating Zionism with racism.
The former chairman of the Irish Anti-Apartheid Movement, Dr Kader Asmal, who now serves as South Africa's Minister of Education, has sought to avert the threatened conflict over Zionism.
He is reported on South African radio as reminding South Africans, including those in the anti-Israel lobby, that some of the bravest fighters against apartheid were Zionists.
His reminder is linked to his counsel on the need to avoid over-simplified formulas in discussions at the pending conference.
South Africa's position on the conference appears close to that of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mrs Mary Robinson.
She has been open about her views on attempts to revive the 1975 UN resolution on Zionism, which was formally rescinded by the UN a decade ago.
"I believe that it is inappropriate to reopen that issue here and anybody who seeks to do so is putting the Durban conference at risk," Mrs Robinson said.
Like Dr Asmal, the Minister in the President's Office, Mr Essop Pahad, has been careful not to aggravate the situation by siding with militantly anti-Israel nations.
Having been the fountainhead of racism during the apartheid era, South Africa must use the conference to help establish itself as the fountain-head of anti-racism, he said. Like Dr Asmal, Mr Pahad is a South African of Indian origin, who was born into a Muslim family.
South Africa has been asked to preside over discussions on the Middle East, Mr Nene said. Brazil is charged with responsibility for discussions on slavery, he added.
South Africa's line on slavery is less clear. Extrapolation from the comments of diplomats suggests, however, that it may settle for an apology without demanding reparations from the European nations most heavily involved in the slave trade and the US as a major - but by no means the only - recipient of slaves transported across the Atlantic Ocean in appalling conditions.
Slavery is part of South Africa's history: slaves were imported from the Dutch East Indies by the Dutch colonisers in the 17th and 18th centuries. While the slaves were emancipated in the first half of the 19th century by Britain - which replaced the Netherlands as the colonial power - and slave owners compensated for the loss of their slaves, reparations have never been paid to the descendants of slaves.