Washington - A group of former top US officials, including former secretary of state Madeleine Albright, have created a task force to help the US government better respond to genocide. Albright, who served as Bill Clinton's top diplomat from 1997 to 2001, will co-chair the panel along with William Cohen, who was a defence secretary during the Clinton administration.
The task force was sponsored by the American Academy of Diplomacy, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and United States Institute of Peace.
"The world agrees that genocide is unacceptable and yet genocide and mass killings continue," Albright said. "Our challenge is to match words to deeds and stop allowing the unacceptable."
Cohen said the United States must be better prepared to halt outbreaks of genocide.
US President George W Bush considers the ongoing conflict in Sudan's Darfur region genocide, and has placed sanctions on Sudanese officials while sponsoring a UN Security Council resolution to deploy a peacekeeping force.
The 13-member task force includes former senators John Danforth, and Tom Daschle, former congressman Jack Kemp, and General Anthony Zinni, who oversaw US military operations in the Middle East in the 1990s.
