The US was angered by anti-Israeli sentiment

Washington-based delegates have now left for home, but they have told the conference secretary-general that the American consul-general in Durban will occupy their seat and retain delegate status.

A new and clear pattern is emerging in American diplomacy.

The lone US representative here now finds himself in very much the same position as the American delegation at the recent climate change talks in Bonn.

Not observers

There, both the Americans and the UN were at pains to stress that the delegation had full delegate status - they were not observers.

But they explicitly said that they would not speak on matters relating to the Kyoto Protocol, since they did not intend to ratify it.

Black US leaders accused the government of spoiling

However, they did retain the right to intervene on matters which directly affected US interests.

Now, here in Durban, the departing US head of delegation told the Conference Secretary General, UN Human Rights Commissioner Mary Robinson, that their consul general in Durban - a very low level diplomat - would occupy the US seat.

The consul would hold it as a delegate, not an observer, to carry on, she said, with issues of interest to the US.

Spoiling role

But an American official told a journalist with Reuters news agency that the consul would not be voting, nor participating in conferences, meetings or workshops.

African-American lobby groups here are accusing their government of playing a spoiling role in a series of international meetings on a wide range of issues.

Citing both the climate change conference and the negotiations on the use of land mines, they said that the United States Government had developed a habit of taking part in the early stages of negotiations, so as to influence the text as much as possible in their favour, but then pulling out or refusing to ratify, or implement the final resolutions.