Peres to miss General Assembly reception held by President Bush

The Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations, Gabriela Shalev, will stand in for President Shimon Peres at the General Assembly's annual reception for world leaders on Monday night.

As Israel's head of state, Peres was supposed to participate in the event, but he had to cancel as a result of the consultations he is holding with the heads of political parties this week following Sunday's resignation of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

Peres will now arrive in New York on Tuesday.

Professor Shalev, who took up the ambassadorial role just two weeks ago, will represent Israel at the event, which is being hosted by U.S. President George W. Bush.

The Israeli president's late arrival also forces him to cancel his participation in a special global conference on the topic of Africa that will take place in New York on Tuesday.

There is also doubt over whether he will still hold a special press conference at the UN planned for Tuesday. The meeting with journalists was set up especially to allow Peres to react to the speech of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to the General Assembly, scheduled to take place earlier the same day.