Bush Directs Attention To Darfur

President George Bush says calming Sudan's ravaged Darfur region will require "probably double" the current number of international peacekeepers and a coordinating role for NATO.

The United Nations already is planning to assume control of peacekeeping from the poorly trained and ill-equipped African Union force, numbering about 7,000, which has not stopped the violence in the expansive Darfur region of western Sudan.

The United States and several other nations have said genocide has occurred in the region, where 180,000 have died from famine and violence in three years. The Arab-dominated government in Khartoum has been accused of backing the Janjaweed militia against civilians in an area where black African rebels revolted in 2003. An estimated 2 million have been forced from their homes.

"The strategy was to encourage African Union troops to try to bring some sense of security to these poor people that are being herded out of their villages and terribly mistreated," Mr. Bush told a friendly, invitation-only audience of about 500 inside a Port of Tampa cruise ship terminal. "The effort was noble, but it didn't achieve the objective."

Meanwhile, in London Britain's foreign secretary accused Sudan's government and rebels of violating a cease-fire, and said Friday that the sides must end their haggling at peace talks and put the war-ravaged region of Darfur back together.

Two rebel groups and the Sudanese government have been talking this week in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, in negotiations aimed at ending the conflict.

The talks are moving far too slowly, and both sides are breaking their promises, Britain's Foreign Secretary Jack Straw wrote in the International Herald Tribune on Friday.

"The only people who have the power to stop this are those who gathered around the table in Abuja," Straw wrote. "They must end the haggling and posturing and start taking real action to put Darfur back together again."

In his article, Straw urged both sides to observe the cease-fire.

If the two sides reach an agreement, the international community will help them implement it, Straw wrote. "Or they can choose not to reach an agreement. The result will be more death and misery and a lost opportunity to build a better future for the people they claim to represent."

Mr. Bush said an effective mission "is going to require, I think, a NATO stewardship," which he said would mean the military alliance would provide planning and coordination. Mr. Bush did not say whether U.S. forces should participate directly.

"We believe it is premature to speculate about what types of forces and equipment may be needed until we see the U.N. plans," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said.

Earlier Friday, Mr. Bush discussed options with NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer.

Also Friday, two Rome-based agencies reported that 6.7 million people in Sudan, including in the Darfur region, are exposed to malnutrition and will need food assistance this year.

The Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Food Program estimated that some 800,000 tons of food aid would be required in 2006 despite a good harvest in the African country.

In a report issued Friday, the agencies said the food aid would mainly target more than 2 million internally displaced people and almost 3.5 million people in Darfur and in areas in southern, central and eastern Sudan.