UNITED NATIONS, Jun 30, 2004, 2004 (IPS) -- The humanitarian crisis in the Darfur region in Sudan has reached deadly proportions with thousands killed, one million displaced and over 150,000 refugees fleeing into neighbouring Chad and entire villages wiped out by marauding Arab militia groups.

Still, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell and U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan have refused to describe the killings by the Janjaweed militia as "genocide".

Salih Booker, executive director of the Washington-based Africa Action, said that 20,000 people in and outside the United States have signed a petition urging Powell to declare that "genocide" is taking place in Darfur. "We want an immediate U.S.-led intervention to stop the killings," Booker said.

The petition is to be presented to Powell later this week on his return from Sudan, where he met Tuesday with Sudanese President Lt. Gen. Omar Hassan Bashir.

"The Khartoum government is clearly responsible for the genocide taking place in Darfur, and yet it continues to deny its role and to obstruct humanitarian access to the region," Booker added.

"Rather than traveling half-way around the world to hold talks with this murderous regime, Powell could achieve much more by simply uttering one word -- genocide," he said.

During his visit to Khartoum Tuesday, Powell told reporters that U.S. officials were still studying the humanitarian situation in Sudan. "What we are seeing is a disaster, a catastrophe, and we can find the right label for it later. We have to deal with it now," he said.

Lavinia Limon, executive director of the U.S. Committee for Refugees, said that "President Bush must call this crime by its rightful name -- 'genocide' -- and act immediately to stop it, and not merely request but force Khartoum to permit unfettered humanitarian access."

The Sudanese government, accused of supporting the Janjaweed militia, has denied any involvement in the mass killings.

Asked if the killings could be characterised as "genocide", Annan told reporters last week: "Based on the reports that I have received, I can't at this stage call it genocide."

"There are massive violations of international humanitarian law," Annan admitted, "but I am not ready to describe it as genocide or ethnic cleansing."

Asked if he accepts the denials by the Sudanese government, he said: "I don't have specific evidence, but from all accounts they can do something about the Janjaweed."

Annan is also due to meet with Sudanese officials in Khartoum later this week to put pressure on the government to allow humanitarian workers free access to Darfur.

Africa Action has rejected Powell's and Annan's visit to Sudan as "dangerously na've".

After a 13-day tour of Sudan in early June, a U.N. human rights expert Asma Jahangir told reporters that the number of black Africans killed by Arab Janjaweed militias is "bound to be staggering".

There is no doubt that Khartoum had sponsored, armed or recruited the so-called Janjaweed militias, said Jahangir, the U.N. special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions.

She said the militias -- who are predominantly Muslim -- often wear the uniforms of government soldiers and use government vehicles.

The United States has been accused of dragging its feet over Darfur primarily because it doesn't want to undermine a U.S.-brokered power- sharing agreeement signed last month between the Sudanese government and the Sudan's People's Liberation Army (SPLA) in southern Sudan. The agreement is being viewed as a prelude to a peace pact to end a 21-year- old civil war in the oil-rich southern part of the country.

"Unless we resolve the Darfur situation and do it correctly, all of that in southern Sudan is put at risk," Powell said Tuesday.

Bill Fletcher, Jr., President of TransAfrica Forum, told IPS that the international community is always slow to respond to internal situations in any country. More often than not there is a fear that an intervention will be used against them in the future, he said.

"None of this excuses the slowness in the face of the Darfur crisis. It is almost irrelevant as to whether one defines the humanitarian disaster in Darfur as genocide or not. It is clearly a humanitarian disaster with thousands of deaths and massive displacement of its population," he added.

"We are witnessing a civil war that has been transformed into ethnic cleansing in which the war is being consciously brought to the civilian population with the full support of the Sudanese government. The protests by the Sudanese government are nothing short of disingenuous," Fletcher said.

He said there needs to be a strong show of opposition to Khartoum by the international community, led by the 56-member African Union (AU).

The AU must take itself and its mission seriously in demanding implementation of the cease fire; disarmament of the Janjaweed; free flow of humanitarian assistance; resettlement of the displaced persons back in their towns and villages; and a political settlement of the crisis, Fletcher said.

"This process can probably only succeed if there is an international military force," he added. "This force should come from either the AU or the United Nations. The United States should provide financial and logistical support to such an effort. The effort must commence immediately," he added.

Booker has called on the United States to mobilise some of its 2,000 troops in nearby Djibouti to lead a multinational force to secure the region, facilitate humanitarian assistance, and enforce a ceasefire until a U.N. peacekeeping force can be assembled..

The crisis in Sudan will be high on the agenda of the AU summit meeting of African heads of state in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa Jul. 6-8.

Asked if he would urge the AU to field a peacekeeping mission in Darfur, Annan told reporters Wednesday that the immediate responsibility falls on the government of Sudan.

"As I have indicated, it has a sacred duty to protect its citizens. If that government is not able or [is] unwilling to do it, the international community has to do something about it".

Annan said the international community "cannot sit still". "It cannot sit idle and complain that, yet again we have had mass killings or a high number of people have been killed or starved to death."

"So, the Security Council also has the responsibility to protect the innocent and the weak and if the situation continues, we have to take it up and determine what measures it should take," he added.

The AU is already deploying monitors to monitor the ceasefire "and it is one of the issues I will be discussing when I go to the African Union summit in Addis Ababa", Annan said.

"I will have the chance to discuss this issue also with the other leaders and see what collectively we can do to help the Sudanese government discharge those responsibilities," he added.