This weekend's largest ever advocacy conference for Israel - We Believe in Israel - is well on track to achieve its target of 1,000 delegates, organisers said this week.

Lorna Fitzsimons, chief executive of Bicom, which has organised the conference, said that people had registered from America, Australia, Spain and France as well as in large numbers from the home communities in the UK.

She said: "We have at least 70 people signing up every day. By the time registration is closed at 1pm today (Friday) on our website, we hope to have 1,000 supporters and friends of Israel joining us for the conference."

The Bicom conference, for which the JC is the media partner, features 80 speakers from Britain and Israel.

Workshops will be run by journalists and politicians from both countries: keynote speakers will include both the British ambassador to Israel, Matthew Gould, and his outgoing counterpart in the UK, Ron Prosor, together with British Defence Secretary Liam Fox MP, Israel's Jewish Agency chairman Natan Sharansky, and the Israeli Education Minister Gideon Sa'ar.

Ms Fitzsimons particularly welcomed the large numbers of 18-year-olds who have registered for the event, many seeing it as a seminal education opportunity before they begin defending Israel once they start their university studies.