FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida, Oct 17 (AFP) - Democratic nominee John Kerry on Sunday castigated President George W. Bush for a "toothless" response to the Darfur crisis, and promised to stop the "genocide" if he was elected president.
In a sharp statement issued as he landed for a campaign stop in Florida, Kerry called for tough United Nations sanctions against Sudan's government and more US humanitarian aid for the crisis-torn region.
"Months ago, I urged the president to call the crisis in Darfur, Sudan, by its rightful name: genocide," the statement said.
"The Bush administration finally did so in September, but shamefully it has done nothing effective to halt this genocide. Words without deeds are meaningless especially when people are dying every day."
"Rarely have the costs of the Bush Administrations inaction and failed leadership been clearer.
"What has been President Bushs response? Toothless US-sponsored UN Security Council resolutions.
"These empty threats serve mainly to embolden the Khartoum government and underscore the administrations loss of international moral authority," Kerry said.
The timing of Kerry's intervention may be seen as a bid to win favour among African-American voters in Florida. The community votes Democrat by a large majority, but is counted upon for a huge turnout on election day to sway a knife edge race in the state.
At a rally in Florida shortly after flying in from Ohio on Sunday, Kerry paid tribute to African-American voters for forcing issues like genocide in Darfur and Haiti's plight onto the political agenda.
Kerry's unexpected foreign policy foray came a day after Bush signed into law a bill requiring the State Department to monitor global anti-Semitism and rate countries annually on their treatment of Jews.
The timing of Bush's signature on a day he visited Florida was seen as an appeal to large numbers of Jewish voters in the state, who Republicans hope to court with his strong support of Israel.
Kerry argued that the administration's humanitarian aid for the people of Darfur had amounted only to a "band-aid" on genocide and called for tough sanctions on the Sudanese government in Khartoum.
"If the UN refuses to act, we will lead our partners outside the Security Council to sanction Khartoum, just as we did the apartheid government of South Africa," he said.
"As President, I will restore US moral authority and leadership in the international community.
"I will not substitute words for deeds in the face of genocide. I will do what is necessary to halt the genocide and punish its perpetrators."
Kerry's statement came as leaders from Sudan and four other nations held talks in Libya on the crisis, but rebel groups left on the sidelines feared Khartoum was seeking only to ease international pressure.
The UN's World Health Organisation recently charged that 70,000 civilians had died in camps from disease and malnutrition since March, a figure which Khartoum disputes.