MUNICH, February 13 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – UN Secretary General Kofi Annan on Sunday, February 13, urged NATO and the European Union to intervene to stop violence in Sudan's troubled Darfur.

The call came one day after the alliance's chief highlighted a possible role in the Middle East in case of a peaceful settlement between the Palestinians and Israelis, reported Agence France Presse (AFP).

Addressing the annual Munich defense and security conference, Annan said people in Darfur “are dying, every single day, while we fail to protect them.”

Citing the urgent need for additional measures, the UN chief said organizations such as the NATO and the EU “must give serious consideration to what, in practical terms, they can do to help end this tragedy”.

A UN report refuted on Tuesday, February 1, US claims of genocide being perpetrated in Darfur.

“The conclusion that no genocidal policy has been pursued and implemented in Darfur by the government authorities, directly or through the militias under their control, should not be taken in any way as detracting from the gravity of the crimes perpetrated in the region,” the report said.

The UN chief did not spell out what steps should be taken by the alliance to stop the allegedly killings in the region, Reuters said.

“Together, working in close cooperation, we must come up with an effective strategy that halts the killing and protects the vulnerable. Otherwise, we shall have failed the people of Darfur”, Annan said.

The Darfur conflict erupted in April 2003 when the rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLA) took up arms against the Khartoum government.

The United Nations said the conflict is causing the world’s worst humanitarian crisis at present.

An estimated 670,000 people have fled their homes since the beginning of the conflict while 110,000 others reportedly sought refuge in neighboring Chad.

NATO chief (L)  said the alliance should “think about a potential role” in the Mideast. (Reuters)

Annan's call for a NATO intervention in Darfur came one day after the alliance's chief said NATO should be prepared to support any future peace agreement between the Palestinians and Israel.

“We should not shy away from starting to think about a potential role for NATO in supporting a Middle East peace agreement,” Jaap de Hoop Scheffer told the same defense and security conference Saturday, February 12.

“If the call comes to NATO, this alliance must be prepared to respond positively and to play its full part,” he added in his most detailed public remarks on possible NATO involvement.

The alliance's chief said he planned to head for Tel Aviv next week, the first such visit by a NATO secretary general to Israel, reported the Israeli daily Haaretz Sunday.

Gen. James L. Jones, the NATO's top military commander, also said he was already looking “conceptually” about what role the alliance could play in the Middle East conflict.

Other European officials, however, sounded cautious about such a role.

US Republican Sen. John McCain also spoke out against NATO playing a classic peacekeeping role in the Middle East.

He said the alliance should consider such areas as training, monitoring and border control after an Israeli-Palestinian agreement.

Hopes are running high for a peaceful settlement between the Palestinians and Israel.