Peace activists around the world have staged a day of action to highlight what they call the forgotten war in Darfur in western Sudan, where tens of thousands of people have been killed and more than two million left homeless.
In New York, a Central Park crowd estimated at around 20,000 demanded that the US government pressure the Sudanese to stop the killings and displacements in Darfur and allow UN peacekeepers to enter the country.
In London, Christian, Muslim and Jewish leaders delivered a plea and said prayers outside the residence of the Prime Minister Tony Blair, and demonstrators rallied outside Sudan's embassy.
The UN has described the situation in Darfur as one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.
Steve Ballinger from Amnesty International said the situation on the ground was desperate.
The Sudanese government has dismissed the global day of action. A Junior Foreign Minister, Ali Ahmd Kerti, said those involved in the protests had been misled by the international media.
Mr Kerti said the situation on the ground in Darfur was improving and he denied that his government had bombed villages in the region.
Sudan leader again rejects UN force
Earlier, the Chairman of the Global Day for Darfur, Hratche Koundarjian, said he believes the world could be witnessing the first genocide of the 21st century.
Yesterday, the Sudanese President, Omar Hassan al-Bashir, again rejected the deployment of UN troops to Darfur.
During a meeting with the UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan, on the sidelines of the Non-Aligned summit of world leaders in Cuba, Mr Bashir said that he did not want troops in the region under any circumstances.
Mr Annan described the situation in Darfur as desperate, and appealed to the Sudanese government to act.
He said that the government in Khartoum continues to refuse to accept the transition to the UN and that the presence of African Union forces was not certain.
