Haitian President Rene Preval said yesterday that his impoverished country is in desperate need of economic assistance and is seeking as much as $100 million to fill a budget gap that he said could send Haiti back into anarchy.

"I believe we are at a very serious turning point," Preval said in an interview. "We can either win or lose."

Preval said he pressed the case for an emergency aid package in meetings Thursday with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, congressional leaders and officials at the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. He said he argued that his long-troubled country was on its way to normalcy when rising food prices, the economic crisis and a series of devastating hurricanes left it reeling.

Preval was the first head of state to meet with Clinton in her new role as chief U.S. diplomat, but he may be only the first in a long line of world leaders seeking enhanced aid packages from the United States during this period of economic turmoil.

A State Department official said Clinton told Preval that she would consider his request but could make no promises.

Preval said he also urged Clinton to convert some of the $250 million in annual aid the United States now gives to Haiti into direct budget support for the government, instead of distributing the money through nongovernmental organizations. The United States is the biggest aid donor to Haiti, but he said "every last cent of the contribution" continues to be funneled through aid organizations, even though the government is better managed.

"Political stability has been restored, but what is necessary is the creation of jobs," he said.

He said Clinton appeared receptive to his appeal, saying she had a "soft spot in her heart for Haiti."

Preval acknowledged that there has been "donor fatigue" over Haiti, but he noted that a series of U.N. peacekeeping missions have each cost nearly $500 million. He said he told officials in Washington that it would be cheaper to give the country the $75 million to $100 million he is seeking rather than have to pay for yet another expensive U.N. mission later.

"We are going to go back to the series of missions unless we do the work necessary to put the country back on the rails," he said.

Preval spoke through an interpreter, but when asked when Haiti needed the money, he broke into English and simply declared, "Now."

By Glenn Kessler, The Washington Post, February 7, 2009

Both Japan, with the world's second-biggest economy, and China, with one of the fastest-growing economies, are critical to efforts to emerge from the worldwide economic crisis, while South Korea is an important trading partner with the United States. Indonesia, where President Obama spent some of his childhood, is the world's largest Muslim nation.

Some experts, however, warn that China may demand a freer hand on such contentious issues as Taiwan and Tibet in exchange for working with the United States on reducing emissions.

Clinton signaled recently that she wanted to elevate the dialogue the administration holds with Chinese officials, with State helping taking the lead not only on diplomacy but also on economic matters. "We need a comprehensive dialogue with China," she told reporters. "The strategic dialogue that was begun in the Bush administration turned into an economic dialogue."

In the Bush administration, the key discussions on economics and climate change were conducted by Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr., though periodic discussions were also held at the level of the deputy secretary of state. Some administration officials have advocated establishing such a dialogue at the vice presidential level, modeled after the commission headed by Vice President Al Gore and Russian Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin. But Clinton also intends to play a leading role, as does Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner, who speaks Chinese.

As preparation for her trip, Clinton last night had dinner with about a dozen experts on East Asia, seeking ideas and proposals. The dinner was organized by State's new head of policy planning, Anne-Marie Slaughter, and the guests included Michael J. Green, a former top adviser to President George W. Bush on Asia, economist Nicholas Lardy of the Peterson Institute for International Economics and Wendy Sherman, an Asia expert who headed Obama's State Department transition team.

Mrs Clinton said she wanted to include Moscow as a "co-operative partner" on issues such as Iran's nuclear plans.

But she did not comment on Russia's announcement that it will start Iran's first nuclear plant by the end of 2009.

Separately, the state department said Mrs Clinton's first trip in her new role would be to Asia, taking in Japan, Indonesia, South Korea and China.

In recent years, the US and Russia have clashed over issues from US plans to build a missile shield in central Europe to Russia's war in Georgia.

Following a meeting with French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, Mrs Clinton said: "On behalf of our mutual concerns regarding Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons, we are going to use smart diplomacy together to engage the international community.

"We will do so including Russia as a co-operative partner because we intend to forge a more constructive relationship."

Nuclear talks

In a signal of how foreign policy could develop under Mrs Clinton, state department spokesman Robert Wood said her first trip would be to Asia and would begin on 15 February.

The US nuclear envoy to North Korea, Christopher Hill, will accompany her on the trip - with discussions over Pyongyang's nuclear programme expected to feature heavily in discussions with Asian leaders.

Talks aimed at ending North Korea's nuclear ambitions involve six nations - North and South Korea, Japan, China, the US and Russia.

Negotiations stalled late last year after the six countries failed to agree on how to verify Pyongyang's account of its nuclear activity.

The base has been used for years as an air logistics hub for U.S. military operations in Afghanistan. The U.S. also has aerial refueling aircraft at the base.

Speaking to reporters at the State Department, Clinton said that regardless of what final decision the Kyrgyz government makes about closing the air base, the United States will proceed with its plans for building up forces in Afghanistan.

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Obama administration, reversing the Bush administration's limited interest in nuclear disarmament, is gearing up for early negotiations with Russia on a new treaty that would sharply reduce stockpiles of nuclear warheads.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has notified Congress and her staff that she intends to get started quickly on talks with the Russians, who have voiced interest in recent weeks in settling on a new treaty calling for cutbacks in arsenals on both sides.

The 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty expires at the end of the year. It limited the United States and Russia to 6,000 nuclear warheads each. The American stockpile is believed to be about 2,300 warheads, and the Russians' even lower.

Clinton's spokesman, Robert Wood, said the new administration was serious about negotiating reductions in nuclear weapons. A replacement treaty for START "will be put on a fast track," Wood said.

President Barack Obama said during the campaign that he would seek verifiable reductions in all U.S. and Russian nuclear weapons. Clinton told Congress last month that deep reductions were the goal.

Clinton has told her staff she intends to get started quickly on talks with the Russians, said an administration official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak about the subject.

Some key arms control posts in the new administration have not been filled, however, and that might slow preparations for talks.

"I can't give you a time frame when we will be able to complete a review," Wood said in an interview Thursday. In that vein, he said, the administration was "clearly committed to reducing the numbers" but has not decided how deep to slash.

Internal talks on what position the U.S. should take in overall disarmament have begun within the State Department and with the White House, said officials aware of the discussions. Those discussions are expected to accelerate when the key posts are filled, said the officials, who asked for anonymity because they were not authorized to talk publicly.

While the officials said they hoped the nomination process and Senate confirmation would not take long they did not know when the administration would be ready for talks with the Russians.

Daryl Kimball, executive director of the private Arms Control Association, said "it appears that reductions down to 1,000 warheads are possible." That would be a cut of more than 50 percent on the U.S. side.

In 2002, President George W. Bush and Russian leader Vladimir Putin agreed on a treaty that sets as a target 1,700 to 2,000 deployed strategic warheads by 2012.

Bernard Kouchner is set to become the latest European envoy to meet with Washington's top diplomat after she hosted the foreign ministers of Britain and Germany on Wednesday.

The three European powers have been at the forefront of international efforts to ensure that Iran does not develop nuclear weapons - an issue likely to be on the agenda Thursday, a French Foreign Ministry official said.

Other hotspots like Iraq, the Middle East, Darfur and Afghanistan are likely to be discussed, the officials said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly about the matter. France has around 3,300 troops alongside NATO and U.S. forces in the Afghan theater.

Kouchner is likely to be eager to get back to his job after working Wednesday to tamp down allegations in a new book in France that threatens to damage his popular image as a champion of the poor and the sick.

Addressing the book during question time Wednesday at the National Assembly, Kouchner lashed out against "a book that, line after line, makes me out to be a foreign agent, a bad Frenchman of questionable origins - grasping at profit."

Kouchner, a trained gastroenterologist, is a co-founder of the Nobel Prize-winning aid group Doctors Without Borders. He served as a Socialist minister for humanitarian action from 1988 to 1993, leading missions to places such as Bosnian prison camps and Somali emergency kitchens.

Among other claims, the book alleges that Kouchner interfered with a French investigation into Rwandan leaders over that country's 1994 genocide, as well as his business affairs in west Africa.

Kouchner said the book has sought to cast him as personifying "the counter-image of France." The book's cover shows a photo of Kouchner arm-in-arm with former President George W. Bush, who is unpopular in France.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pledged to reduce the government's use of private security contractors abroad, in comments Wednesday.

Clinton said a review of the firms' role was being carried out following a series of scandals over the conduct of contractors like Blackwater, barred from Iraq for its role in a 2007 Baghdad shooting involving its guards, in which 17 civilians were killed.

"I certainly am of the mind that we should, insofar as possible, diminish our reliance on private security contractors", Clinton said during a gathering at the State Department.

But the former presidential candidate stopped short of calling for an outright ban on the government use of security contractors.

"Whether we can go all the way to banning, under current circumstances, seems unlikely, but we ought to be engaged in a very careful review of where they should and should not be used," she said.

Clinton said the government had already severed links with Blackwater following the January 29 ban by the Iraqi government.

However another contractor could replace Blackwater in providing security for some 300 employees at the US embassy in Baghdad.

Clinton said reduced troop numbers in Iraq -- a key part of President Barack Obama's campaign platform -- would likely mean contractors would still play a role.

"Here is the dilemma and take Iraq as the example. We are going to be withdrawing our troops ... How we provide security and safety for those performing civilian functions is a very difficult question," she said.

AFP, February 4, 2009

WASHINGTON (AP) - Getting a first taste of the world of challenges on her plate, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton says she was surprised to discover what issue animates State Department employees the most: food.

In a tone of mock gravity and with the timing of a standup comic, Clinton on Wednesday recounted her first trip to the department's cafeteria.

She began by telling a town-hall style meeting of employees that she had plunged into her job by naming special envoys for the Middle East and for Afghanistan and Pakistan, as well as preparing for one of the expected highlights on the 2009 diplomatic calendar - a NATO summit meeting in early April.

"But I went to the cafeteria," she said, pausing for effect, "and I was more directly engaged on price, quality and efficiency of the delivery of the food than on any of these crises that fill the headlines."

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton plunged into her first day of intensive diplomacy yesterday, meeting separately with the foreign ministers of Britain and Germany and receiving a trip report from her Middle East envoy.

Clinton sought to assure European allies that the administration would closely coordinate with them on its emerging efforts to hold direct talks with Iran. She had pointed words about Iranian behavior on the same day that Tehran announced it had successfully sent its first domestically produced satellite into orbit using an Iranian-made long-distance missile.

"President Obama has signaled his intention to support tough and direct diplomacy with Iran, but if Tehran does not comply with United Nations Security Council and IAEA mandates, there must be consequences," Clinton said with German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier at her side. She used the abbreviation for the International Atomic Energy Agency, which has unsuccessfully sought answers from Iran on its nuclear program.

During the Bush administration, the United States, along with Russian and China, joined a European-led effort to restrain Iran's nuclear ambitions -- offering a choice of economic incentives or sanctions -- but then-President George W. Bush had set strict limits on the nature of the U.S. participation. The six nations demanded that Iran first suspend its nuclear enrichment activities before negotiations could begin, a stance that Iran repeatedly rejected, even as the allies greatly watered down the demands for suspension. The six nations also had trouble reaching agreement on tough sanctions when Iran failed to comply with their demands.

"The new administration's approach fits directly with the dual-track strategy that's been developed," Miliband told reporters outside the State Department. "It takes it to a new level," he said, noting that "they have said the hand of friendship is there if Iran is willing to unclench its fist. It is clear the international community is still waiting for Iran to unclench its fist." But, he stressed, based on his conversation with Clinton, that "there is absolutely no way that this administration intends to circumvent any of the multilateral approaches that have been developed."

As a first step, Undersecretary of State William J. Burns will meet in Germany today with counterparts of the five other nations, sketching out the administration's emerging approach to Iran and soliciting ways to integrate it with the multilateral effort. Clinton, discussing Burns's trip, told reporters, "Iran has an opportunity to step up and become a productive member of the international community."

Clinton also met with the administration's Middle East peace envoy, former senator George J. Mitchell, who returned this week from a week-long trip in the region. Clinton announced that Mitchell will return to the Middle East by the end of the month.

"The situation is obviously complex and difficult, and there are no easy or risk-free courses of action," Mitchell said. "But I'm convinced, after a week there, that my original assessment that with patient, determined and persevering diplomacy, we can help to make a difference and that we can assist those in the region achieve the peace and stability that people on all sides long for."

The whirlwind of meetings and news conferences comes as Clinton is putting the finishing touches on plans for her first overseas trip, which appears likely to focus on three crucial countries in Asia: Japan, China and South Korea.

By Glenn Kessler, The Washington Post, February 4, 2009

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Foreign Secretary David Miliband also said Tuesday after a meeting in Washington that they want a political solution to the conflict that has killed more than 70,000 people since the Tamil Tiger rebels began fighting for a separate homeland.

The diplomats said in a statement that "the time to resume political discussions is now."

In recent months, government troops have routed the rebels from much of the de facto state they controlled.

"There were rockets yesterday, there were rockets this morning," Clinton told reporters at the State Department in Washington, referring to firings by Gaza Strip militants on Israeli communities. "It is very difficult to ask any nation to do anything other than defend itself in the wake of that kind of consistent attack."

Clinton spoke today alongside her new Middle East envoy, former Senator George Mitchell, who just came from an initial round of discussions with leaders in the region. Clinton said Mitchell would return this month.

Mideast leaders are eager to have Clinton herself visit them as soon as her schedule allows, Mitchell said.

Clinton said she and Mitchell discussed how to better mobilize aid to Palestinians in Gaza after the fighting between Hamas and Israel that ended this month. More than 1,300 Palestinians and 13 Israelis were killed.

The envoy, who was instrumental in Northern Ireland peace efforts, said his initial trip had convinced him that "patient, determined and persevering diplomacy" can make a difference in easing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said the Saudi peace plan that calls for Israel to return to 1967 borders, in exchange for full normalization of relations with the Arab states, could serve as the basis for negotiations. Barak spoke at a conference in Herzliya, north of Tel Aviv.

On Jan. 22, two days after his inauguration, President Barack Obama called on Arab states in the region to act on the "promise" of a peace initiative proposed by Saudi Arabia in 2002, saying it "contains constructive elements that could help advance these efforts."

By Viola Gienger, Bloomberg, February 3, 2009

These are Clinton's first high-profile meetings since her appointment Jan. 21, and they come during a week of hectic diplomacy for the administration.

After Clinton's meetings with David Miliband, the British foreign secretary, and Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the German foreign minister, the United States will send diplomats to join those from the six countries involved in trying to persuade Iran to halt its nuclear program. Britain, China, France, Russia, the United States and Germany will meet Wednesday near Frankfurt, a German Foreign Ministry official said.

Then on Friday, a delegation of senior U.S. diplomats will travel to southern Germany for the annual Munich Security Conference, where there will be intensive bilateral meetings during which the United States hopes to convince Europe to accept a much greater role in Afghanistan, and to support U.S. efforts to advance the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, according to U.S. officials.

President Barack Obama has already sent George Mitchell, his special Middle East envoy, to Egypt, Israel and the Palestinian territories. And on Sunday, Richard Holbrooke, Obama's special representative for Pakistan and Afghanistan, will travel to the region after attending the Munich conference.

"Afghanistan is central to this administration's foreign policy," he said.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates has proposed increasing the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan from the 20,000 now deployed to about 50,000, while asking NATO countries to contribute more troops, especially in the southern provinces, where much of the insurgency is taking place.

It is not clear how far Germany will go in supporting Obama's plans for Afghanistan. Germany has 4,500 troops there, the majority based in the northern province of Kunduz. Despite pleas from NATO to send troops to the south, Germany has refused to lift restrictions that would enable its troops to play a more active role in combat.

The administration has also signaled a shift in policy with regard to Iran. Obama last week told Al Arabiya, the Arab television channel based in Dubai, that he was prepared to talk directly with Iran. Diplomatic relations were broken off nearly three decades ago after students supporting the Islamic regime, then new, stormed the U.S. embassy in Tehran in 1979.

Berlin, which only reluctantly imposed sanctions on Iran during the Bush administration, has welcomed Obama's initiative.

Only recently, the German government agreed to cut its export guarantees for companies trading with Iran, after repeated pressure from the United States and Israel. German exports to Iran increased by 10.5 percent during the first eleven months of last year, amounting to €3.6 billion, or $4.6 billion, according to the German national statistics office.

Arriving in Washington, Steinmeier said "now is the time to formulate a new trans-Atlantic agenda with the United States which will enable us to tackle the challenges of the future together."

Germany's main interests are reviving talks on arms control and climate change. Steinmeier is also hoping that the administration will abandon plans to deploy its anti-ballistic missile shield in Poland and the Czech Republic.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier will follow Miliband two hours later.

State Department spokesman Robert Wood said Monday that he expects the separate meetings to be "very substantive," touching on many important issues including Iran and Afghanistan.

"I think Iran is certainly going to be up there near the top," Wood said. "You know, Afghanistan, which is central to this administration's foreign policy."

Steinmeier's spokesman, Jens Ploetner, said the minister's meeting would touch on a wide range of issues including the situation in Afghanistan, climate change, the global financial crisis and a NATO summit coming in April.

Yes, that was Chevy Chase, the former "Saturday Night Live" funnyman, in the crowd at Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton's ceremonial swearing-in Monday at the State Department.

Chase brought a touch of Hollywood star power to a gathering of Washington's power elite, including Henry Kissinger and three other former secretaries of state, as Vice President Joe Biden administered the oath of office.

Chase told The Associated Press that he and his wife Jayni have been friends with the Clintons since the early 1990s.

Among the other attendees: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and retired Army Gen. Wesley Clark. Also, Sen. Carl Levin, with whom Clinton served on the Senate Armed Services Committee during her years as the junior senator from New York, and Sen. John Kerry, who presided over Clinton's confirmation hearing last month as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

And there were the other Clintons - former President Bill Clinton and daughter Chelsea Clinton, plus the secretary of state's mother, Dorothy Rodham and Clinton family friend and confidante Vernon Jordan.

In her remarks, Clinton thanked Biden and President Barack Obama for choosing her as the nation's top diplomat, saying she had assumed her new responsibilities "at a real hinge-of-history time."

"We have in the leadership of President Obama someone who wants us to reach out to the world, to do so without illusions, understanding that the difficulties we face will not be wished away," she said.

In a slightly awkward moment, Clinton thanked her husband, who stood behind her and beside Chelsea. "I am so grateful to him for a lifetime of," she said - pausing as if searching for the right words -"all kinds of experiences." At that the crowd erupted briefly in laughter.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Hillary Clinton is expected to travel to Japan, South Korea, China and possibly Indonesia in mid-February on her first trip as U.S. secretary of state, diplomats said on Monday.

The diplomats, who spoke on condition they not be identified because the State Department has yet to announce the trip, cautioned that Clinton's schedule could change.

The stalled multilateral effort to rein in North Korea's nuclear ambitions is likely to be a major feature of Clinton's talks in the region, as is the global financial crisis.

North Korea's nuclear program is among the most vexing of a series of foreign policy challenges that U.S. President Barack Obama inherited from former President George W. Bush.

Pyongyang agreed in 2005 to abandon its nuclear programs under a deal struck by the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States but it then tested a nuclear device in 2006.

The secretive, communist state subsequently reached more detailed pacts to dismantle its plutonium-based nuclear program but it has balked at allowing extensive inspections that would allow the United States to verify its actions.

Clinton has praised the six-party talks, which allow the United States to try to leverage the influence of the other parties -- notably China -- to reward North Korea for steps toward denuclearization and to punish it for backsliding.

However, it is unclear how the Obama administration plans to get North Korea back on track with the aid-for-disarmament deal or whether it may consider a more intense bilateral dialogue as a way to do so.

The diplomats said Clinton might visit Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, during her trip. Such a visit with fit with Obama's efforts to restore U.S. relations with the Muslim world.

Obama, who spent part of his childhood in Indonesia, said in his inaugural address he sought a new way forward with the Muslim world "based on mutual interest and mutual respect."

But the ceremony wasn't as formal as one might expect.

Before the event began, actor and comedian Chevy Chase distracted the crowd by standing in front of a line full of cameras blocking their shots. He joked, "Am I in the way?" as the cameras snapped away at guest who seemed just a bit unlike the others in the room.

Just weeks after taking a jab at Chief Justice Roberts for his missteps when administering the oath for President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden stumbled on a few words himself as he did the honors administering the oath for Clinton. Roberts twist of words caused the precautionary White House to swear in President Obama for a second time, but Clinton's ceremony today was already her second -- a special ceremony for friends and cameras to see, unfortunately for the VP.

Before his stumble Biden said he was a "Hillary Clinton fan."

"Never did I think, by the way, Madame Secretary, I'd get to swear you in as secretary of State. Never did I think about being vice president," Biden said to a room full of laughter.

After the oath, Clinton joked, "As Joe laughingly referenced, neither one of us thought that we would be standing here together, doing what we are now doing together. Life has a funny way of unfolding. And politics is even stranger."

But the crowd roared even louder with laughter after the new Secretary thanked her husband and cracked a joke that made the former president turn beet red.

The decorated room on the eighth floor of the State Department was full of Washington insiders. Four previous secretaries of State attended the ceremony. Obama Transition co-Chairman and Former Clinton White House Chief of Staff John Podesta was seen chatting with former Secretary of State James Baker. Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Majority Leader Harry Reid were also in attendance.

The diplomats spoke on condition of anonymity because Clinton's schedule was still being finalized. The State Department has not commented on her travel plans.

Making Asia Clinton's first overseas destination illustrates the Obama administration's desire for a broader partnership with China and its commitment to resolving the North Korean nuclear issue, as well as strengthening ties with Tokyo and Seoul, the diplomats said.

The White House said President Barack Obama told Chinese President Hu Jintao in a Friday phone call that he looked forward to "to early contacts and exchanges between senior officials of our two countries."

Clinton told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last month she hoped to make an early trip to Southeast Asia, in particular Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim-majority nation where Obama spent part of his childhood. Clinton said she wanted to restart Peace Corps programs there, which were suspended in the 1960s.

Traditionally U.S. secretaries of state make Europe or the Middle East their first official trip overseas. But given that Vice President Joseph Biden is headed to Europe this week for a security conference in Germany, and special envoy George Mitchell is currently in the Middle East, Clinton is free to break with tradition.

However British Foreign Secretary David Miliband and German Foreign Secretary Walter Steinmeier will be Clinton's first foreign guests to the State Department on Tuesday.

Clinton was sworn in as America's 67th secretary of state on Monday -- for a second time.

Biden administered the oath to Clinton in a ceremonial star-studded gathering at the State Department, with actor Chevy Chase and designer Oscar de la Renta among those on hand.

Could the president be assembling a dream team of advisers who will begin rebuilding the peace process for Darfur and Sudan? They certainly appear to have an opportunity and an inclination to do so. On the other hand, we've been disappointed before.

Obama's own interest in Darfur is well-documented. He has described genocide as a "stain on our souls," and he has said that ending it in Darfur should be a top foreign-policy priority for the United States. In October 2004, he insisted that "there must be real pressure placed on the Sudanese government. ... The United States, along with the U.N., must take immediate steps to halt this dire situation."

Last summer, Obama reiterated his commitment to the issue in a rare joint statement with the other leading presidential candidates, Sens. John McCain and Clinton. The statement promised that any of them, if elected, would pursue an end to the genocide with "unstinting resolve."

Similarly, Obama's No. 2, Vice President Biden, has traveled to the region and expressed outrage at the lack of effective action. And our new ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, is on record decrying the "daily cost of the status quo of a feckless policy characterized by bluster and retreat."

In 2007 congressional testimony, Rice demanded, "How can the [Bush] administration explain to the dead, the nearly dead, and the soon-to-be-dead people of Darfur that, at the end of the day - even when we declare that genocide is occurring, even when we insist repeatedly that we are committed to stopping it - the United States has stood by for so long while the killing has persisted?"

So, will the members of the new Obama administration follow through on their clearly stated commitment to bring peace to Darfur?

Ask any of the millions of Americans in the movement to end genocide in Darfur if the new administration's promises could prove empty, and they'll tell you they've seen it happen before.

Former President George W. Bush famously wrote "not on my watch" in the margin of a report on the Clinton administration's inaction on the Rwanda genocide. And, to his credit, he became what the Washington Post described as the "desk officer" for Sudan in his administration.

But although Bush drew needed attention to the region and supported international prosecution of Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, he was not able to stimulate broad, global action to end the crisis. And hundreds of thousands have died in Darfur over the last six years, while an additional 2.7 million have been displaced.

But the enthusiasm with which Obama's election was greeted in Africa, Europe, and around the world means that other governments will be actively looking for ways to work with the new administration. At the same time, the Sudanese government is already feeling new pressure, having been unable to derail the International Criminal Court investigation of Bashir.

A new administration aggressively focused on coordinated diplomacy with other key players would be a nightmare for Khartoum. If the new president and his team seize the opportunity and launch an intensive "peace surge," there is a real possibility of ending the genocide.

Obama is facing innumerable pressing issues. But a sustained effort to end the first genocide of the 21st century in his first months in office would be a dramatic but feasible way to realize his vision of renewing America's international standing and leadership. And he would have the support of a broad and growing constituency of conscience, comprising Americans from all walks of life, ages, and political, religious and ethnic backgrounds.

Since 2003, Darfur's civilians have endured massive violence and displacement, witnessed the almost complete destruction of their homeland, and been virtually abandoned by an international community unwilling to take a firm stance and hold the Sudanese government accountable. Obama and his team can end this suffering.