The US Government wants you to know: It really, truly doesn't like Nazis, however it finds itself in a bind.

Key points: The US will vote against a UN resolution condemning the glorification of Nazism

The US will vote against a UN resolution condemning the glorification of Nazism The US has repeatedly voted against the resolution as it is anti-free speech

The US has repeatedly voted against the resolution as it is anti-free speech It is likely to create more of a stir after Donald Trump's Charlottesville comments

At the United Nations this week, the US plans to vote against a yearly resolution condemning the glorification of Nazism, State Department officials said.

Although it may seem counterintuitive — who wouldn't want to condemn Nazis? — officials said free speech protections and other problems with the resolution make it impossible for America to support.

Introduced by Russia, the resolution calls on all UN nations to ban pro-Nazi speech and organisations, and to implement other restrictions on speech and assembly.

That's a non-starter in the US, where First Amendment protections guarantee all the right to utter almost anything they want — even praise for Adolf Hitler's followers.

The United States voted against the resolution every year, along with just a handful of others, while the European Union nations and some others typically abstain.

The resolution is always passed overwhelmingly, usually with little fanfare.

But this year, the No vote from the US is likely to create more of a stir, given it is the first rendition of the vote since President Donald Trump entered office.

Mr Trump adamantly denied any secret affinity for white supremacists. Yet his "blame-on-both-sides" response to violence in August at a white nationalist protest in Charlottesville, Virginia, gave fodder to his critics, who said he's insufficiently critical of neo-Nazis.

Sorry, this video has expired Donald Trump called on the US to 'come together as one'. (Photo: AP/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

So US officials worked overtime this year to try to explain that no, America doesn't support pro-Nazi speech — but can't vote for a resolution that calls for outlawing it, either.

The vote is scheduled for Thursday in the UN General Assembly's human rights committee.

US presses Israel to vote against resolution

All resolutions in the General Assembly committees are nonbinding and don't impose any legal requirements on member nations.

But American support for resolutions that contradict domestic law could end up being used as arguments in the US Federal Court, and officials worry about undermining national law-enforcement efforts.

A similar drama bedevilled the Trump administration last month when the US voted against a resolution at the UN Human Rights Council condemning the use of the death penalty to punish homosexuality — another apparent no-brainer.

Even though the US adamantly opposes capital punishment for homosexuality, blasphemy, adultery and apostasy, the US couldn't vote for it because of the resolution's broader condemnation of the death penalty, State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said.

"The United States clearly has the death penalty, both at the state and at the federal level," she said.

"That is why we voted against this."

The US has been considering a last-minute push in the General Assembly to amend the resolution to remove what it considers the problematic parts, in what officials said would amount to a wholesale overhaul.

But officials said no final decision had been reached. Even if the US tried to change the resolution so that it could vote for it, the effort is unlikely to succeed.

Will Israel, the close US ally whose history is intertwined with the Holocaust, vote with the US?

In the past, Israel has voted for the resolution but Washington has pushed the Jewish state to vote No this year, or at a minimum to abstain.

It's unclear how Israel will vote. A spokesman for Israel's mission to the UN did not respond to a request for comment.

AP