''This [President George W.] Bush administration policy of acquiescence to genocide is indefensible,'' said Salih Booker, executive director of Washington, D.C.-based Africa Action. ''To the White House, the so-called war on terror trumps genocide in Africa.''

Booker was reacting to testimony earlier Wednesday by Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick, who told the U.S. House of Representatives international relations committee that Washington and Khartoum shared counter-terrorism intelligence.

Zoellick highlighted U.S. logistical support for African peacekeepers in Darfur, saying this demonstrated Washington's commitment to stopping the Darfur conflict, now in its third year. But, according to Africa Action, he failed to describe new and urgent U.S. action designed to stop the genocide and protect civilians in Darfur.

Zoellick's testimony on Wednesday followed revelations last month that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had secretly flown Khartoum's intelligence chief, Maj. Gen. Salah Abdallah Gosh, to the United States in mid-April for high-level meetings on sharing intelligence in what the White House calls its ''war on terror.'' Gosh has been named as one of the officials responsible for directing counter-insurgency efforts in Darfur.

''Nine months after acknowledging that genocide is taking place in Darfur, it is undeniably clear that the Bush administration is sacrificing the people of Darfur for what it considers to be more pressing priorities,'' said Booker.

That worries Booker's group, which has led calls for greater U.S. and international backing for African Union (AU) peacekeeping efforts, saying the violence already has killed as many as 400,000 people and forced some 2.5 million to flee their homes and villages.

The death toll will exceed one million people by the end of the year, the organization warned, unless bold steps are taken to rein in the conflict over resources between rebel groups of African descent and Arab militias that the Khartoum regime stands accused of arming and abetting.

And even as government and rebel forces implement a peace process in the country's south, Khartoum appears to be girding for new violence in eastern Sudan, where local populations also are rebelling against the government, according to Africa Action.

African peacekeepers have impressed international observers but remain too few and too skimpily supported to protect civilians and restore order. Chief among their constraints, they lack a political mandate to intervene in fighting to protect civilians, said Ann-Louise Colgan, Africa Action's director of policy analysis.

''As the genocide continues in Darfur, the African Union's ambitious plans to scale up its observer mission on the ground are well-intended but unrealistic. The AU cannot respond to Darfur alone, nor should it have to. Genocide is an international crime and it requires an urgent international response.''

''The AU needs a mandate to protect civilians and a greatly-expanded troop presence on the ground now in order to protect the people of Darfur, and this is what the U.S. should be advocating at the United Nations,'' said Colgan. ''The U.S. should be seeking to reinforce the AU's efforts, not hide behind them.''

U.S. and European defense officials agreed earlier this month to provide transport and logistics support to airlift an additional 5,000 African troops to reinforce the AU's 2,700 soldiers deployed in Darfur, a region the size of Texas.

AU officials have said they want the fresh troops deployed before September, the start of Darfur's rainy season. The organization, in an April 28 report, called for an overall increase in African forces in Darfur to 12,3000 military, police, and civilian personnel by spring 2006.

International Crisis Group, a conflict watchdog, said in a recent assessment that at least 12,000-15,000 peacekeepers would be needed in Darfur by the end of July.

Africa Action, which, along with some 80 human rights, religious, and African groups, last month demanded the creation of a ''robust'' international peacekeeping force for Darfur, on Wednesday stepped up its calls for non-African peacekeepers to be deployed in support of the AU troops.

Sudan has welcomed the logistical help from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) but has rejected the idea of allowing Western troops on its soil.

Washington has termed the situation in Darfur genocide. The United Nations has stopped short of using the word but has stated that crimes against humanity are being committed. In April, the world body passed a resolution referring cases of alleged atrocities since July 2002 to the International Criminal Court.

The fledgling court said on June 6 it was taking up the cases and prosecutors had yet to decide whom to indict from a list of 51 potential suspects drawn up by a U.N. investigative commission. The list has not been made public but is understood to include Sudanese government and army officials as well as militia and rebel leaders.