Blair urged to push U.N. anti-genocide plan

By George Nishiyama

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's Tony Blair must pressure the United States and other doubters to back a United Nations plan to stop a repeat of genocides like the 1994 slaughter in Rwanda, aid organisation Oxfam said on Monday.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan unveiled a plan for sweeping changes at the world body earlier this year including the introduction of a "responsibility to protect" civilians from atrocities.

Annan wants world leaders to adopt the plan at a U.N. summit of world leaders in September. Oxfam said Washington has tried to water down the proposal while others wished to block it completely.

"It is now crunch time in the negotiations. The government must use whatever influence it has with Brazil, Russia, India and the U.S. to get them to support this vital agreement," said Barbara Stocking, Director of Oxfam.

Stocking said Prime Minister Blair had a close working relationship with U.S. President George W. Bush, and must use his influence to back the scheme, which will be discussed at the U.N. this week.

"We hope that this is an issue where the prime minister will use this relationship to secure agreement on a foreign policy objective that could help save millions of lives," she said.

Blair has long claimed that supporting Bush -- in Afghanistan and Iraq -- gives London vital sway with the U.S. administration.

He has also said any repeat of the genocide in Rwanda, in which an estimated 800,000 people were killed while the world stood by, would force "a moral duty to act" on the international community.

Oxfam said Britain, Japan, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, the European Union, Rwanda and Kenya have strongly supported the U.N. scheme, but predicted that pressure would build on them to compromise and weaken the language of the final declaration that world leaders will sign.

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