Israel's humanitarian achievements will go on display in a prime Manchester city centre venue in a move to highlight the positive role it plays in the world.

Opening at Manchester Town Hall on March 14 and running until April, the 40-panel exhibition will showcase Israel's emergency aid work - for example, after last year's Haiti earthquake and the Asian tsunami in 2004.

The display of Israeli contributions has been developed by its foreign ministry in a bid to combat anti-Israel activists who attack its humanitarian record.

Last July, Manchester Cathedral was criticised for accepting an exhibition of Palestinian children's artwork which organisers claimed was evidence of Israeli war crimes.

Doreen Gerson from Manchester's Israel Information Centre is organising the new exhibition.

She hopes it will serve to "increase understanding in the general public of the fact that Israel is a very small country in the Middle East which does exceptional stuff throughout the world".