WASHINGTON, August 4 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Influential leaders of the US evangelical organizations signed a letter asking President George W. Bush to consider a military action against Sudan, as the Sudanese government said it was ready to share power and wealth with the Darfur rebels.

"Now is... the time for the United States government to take a more decisive role to prevent further slaughter and death," read the letter signed by 35 Evangelical leaders of organizations that have 50 million members, and carried by Reuters on Wednesday, August 4.

They complained the US-sponsored resolution in the United Nations on Darfur did not go far enough on threatening military intervention in Sudan.

"The administration needs to understand this constituency is serious about Darfur," Richard Cizik of the National Association of Evangelicals said.

"From a moral vantage point, we can't sit on our hands and worry about the consequences of intervention when the consequences of nonintervention are so blatantly staring us in the face," he added.

The message adds more pressures on Bush in his endeavor to run for a second term in office as the evangelicals are a part of his political base.

Among signatories of the letter were the leaders of several denominations, such as the Assemblies of God and the Church of the Nazarene. They also included the heads of the National Association of Evangelicals, the World Evangelical Alliance and several seminaries, relief groups and evangelical publications.

"We view this as an opportunity to reach out to Muslims in the name of Jesus," the Washington Post quoted Rev. Ted Haggard, president of the National Association of Evangelicals as saying.

"Christian people are appalled by this kind of genocide, and we don't want it taking place in our generation," he added.

In 2000, press reports said a number of American missionary groups have established the "Institute for Islamic Studies" somewhere in Latin America to teach enough about Islam to invade Muslim countries and try to convert Muslims to Christianity.

Muslim observers fear military intervention into Sudan could be aimed at weakening its role in maintaining the Islamic identity of Darfur, which has no Christians or churches. Southern Sudan has no more than three million Christians after a massive wave of proselytization that began in 1919.

This came as UN Secretary general Kofi Annan's special envoy in Sudan, Jan Pronk, has said security in the Darfur camps had improved.

The Khartoum government also unveiled steps to improve security and allow the return of refugees back to their homes in Darfur.

Among other steps, Sudan intends to increase the number of police in Darfur to 6,000 from 5,000 and deploy more troops.

The government also expressed readiness to share power and wealth with the Darfur rebels.

"We are ready to reach an agreement as we have done in resolving the conflict in southern Sudan," said Malik in reference to Kenyan peace talks with the Sudan People's Liberation Army aimed at ending the two-decade civil war with the southern rebel group.