A nine-year-old American is preparing for a court case against US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Menachem Zivotofsky began legal proceedings after his parents were prevented from registering his birth country as Israel.

He was born in Jerusalem but according to the US State Department, births in Jerusalem cannot be recorded as in Israel. Those born in other Israeli cities such as Haifa or Tel Aviv do not face the same restrictions.

Menachem, whose parents are American and who has American citizenship, should see his case go to the Supreme Court in November.

The lawsuit is not without precedent; a court battle in 1994 led to congress allowing US citizens born in Taiwan to register that, despite its impact on relatiosn with the Chinese government.

The Anti-Defamation League called for a change to an "offensive, harmful and insensitive" policy.

National director Abraham Foxman said: "It's insulting that the State Department refuses to make this simple change to identify American citizens as having been born in Jerusalem, Israel.

"It borders on the irrational, and it's time it ended. We hope the Supreme Court will see the fairness and reasonableness of this lawsuit, and set it straight."