New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark has criticised the way a United Nations committee reached its conclusion that the Foreshore and Seabed Act, adopted at the New Zealand Parliament last year, appears to be discriminatory.

The Geneva-based committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination in its report issued on Saturday, found the Foreshore and Seabed Act discriminates against Maori and has urgedthe New Zealand government to face the issue.

The report said the Act failed to provide guaranteed right of redress to Maori and was discriminatory "particularly in its extinguishment of the possibility of establishing Maori customary title over the foreshore and seabed."

It recommended the New Zealand government "resume dialogue" with Maori in order to reduce the discrimination, including amending the legislation where necessary.

The report has been hailed by opponents of the legislation in the country as evidence that it disadvantages Maori and there have been calls for its repeal.

Clark said Monday the committee did not find New Zealand was inbreach of any UN convention, and noted the country's good track record of dialogue and negotiation with Maori.

"I don't think we should elevate this to a statement that the Uinted Nations is making a finding against New Zealand," she said on TV One's Breakfast program.

"This is not the UN Security Council... this is a committee that sits on the outer edge of the UN system."

Clark said the committee followed "a most unsatisfactory process" when it met in Geneva to consider complaints by Maori whowere opposed to the legislation.

Clark said she thought people opposed to the legislation were taking more from the report than it actually contained.

"This isn't a statement that New Zealand is a terrible country in breach of international conventions that those who went trotting off to it wanted to hear," she said.

The Maori Party and the Greens Party have both called for the Act to be repealed in light of the committee's report.

When it was released on Saturday, New Zealand Deputy Prime Minister Michael Cullen urged caution in interpreting it.

He said it ran to only nine paragraphs and did not provide muchcommentary on the committee's reasons for reaching its conclusions.

Source: Xinhua