The United States and other nations are prepared to help move an expanded African peacekeeping force into position in Sudan's Darfur region to halt the bloodshed, US national security adviser Ms Condoleezza Rice said today.
President George W Bush has declared that the violence in Darfur amounts to genocide and has urged the world to expand an African peacekeeping force.
"The key is ... to get an augmentation of the African Union force that is already on the ground," Rice told CNN's "Late Edition."
"Rwandans are ready to go. Nigerians are ready to go. We are prepared, with others, to help get them there," she added. "We're actively involved in trying to get Khartoum to stop this terrible tragedy."
Sudan has rejected the genocide declaration as American "posturing" and several UN Security Council members have raised objections to a draft resolution on Darfur circulated by Washington.
On another program, US Secretary of State Mr Colin Powell said efforts to bring the security situation under control were not working.
"The Sudanese government has to do more," Mr Powell told "Fox News Sunday."
And Mr Powell said the United States would continue to work for sanctions at the United Nations against Khartoum.
Rebels began an uprising in Darfur in February 2003 after years of skirmishes between mainly African farmers and Arab nomads over land and water. The government turned to the Janjaweed militias to help suppress the rebels.
The United Nations has estimated some 1.2 million people have fled their homes and up to 50,000 people have died from direct violence, starvation or illness in what it describes as the world's worst humanitarian crisis.
The 53-nation African Union has more than 80 observers in Darfur, but only to monitor a cease-fire between the government and rebels. Some 300 AU troops have been deployed to protect the monitors.
In a draft UN resolution circulated last week, the United States proposed imposing sanctions on Sudan's oil industry if Khartoum does not disarm the Janajweed militias blamed for driving more than a million Darfuris from their homes.