UNITED NATIONS - A BIPARTISAN team of former top US policy-makers on Tuesday urged president-elect Barack Obama to make the prevention of genocide a national priority and to set up a high-level mechanism toward that end.

Former US secretary of state Madeleine Albright and former defence secretary William Cohen came to UN headquarters to unveil the report of the Genocide Prevention Task Force which they co-chaired.

The study, 'Preventing Genocide: A Blueprint for US policy-makers,' listed 34 recommendations, including improved early warning mechanisms, early action to prevent crises, greater preparedness to use military force as a last resort, and steps to strengthen global norms and institutions.

'The central premise of our report is that genocide is unacceptable and that we can and should do more to prevent it,' Ms Albright, who served as US chief diplomat under president Bill Clinton, told a press conference.

'The United States does not bear this burden alone but we have both the duty and a profound interest in helping to show the way,' she said.

Ms Albright said Mr Obama's incoming administration 'should treat the prevention of genocide as a top foreign policy priority, and this spirit should pervade both our national security agencies and the multilateral bodies in which we take part.'

She also recommended that the US government 'create a high level inter-agency mechanism that is specifically focused on stopping genocide before it happens.'

She said her task force proposes appropriating 250 million dollars annually to finance specially tailored projects in countries at risk.

'We are keenly aware that the incoming's agenda will be massive and daunting from day one,' Ms Albright and Mr Cohen said in their report.

'But preventing genocide and mass atrocities is not an idealistic add-on to our core foreign policy agenda. It is a moral and strategic imperative.'

They spoke as the world body marks the 60th anniversary of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, which has so far been ratified by 140 countries.

In one of its potentially most controversial suggestions, the report urged the US secretary of state to launch 'robust diplomatic efforts toward negotiating' a deal among the five permanent members (P-5) of the UN Security Council on non-use of their right of veto in cases concerning genocide or mass atrocities.

'A principal aim should be informal, voluntary mutual restraint in the use or threat of a veto in cases involving ongoing or imminent mass atrocities,' it noted.

'The P-5 should agree that unless three permanent members were to agree to veto a given resolution, all five would abstain or support it.'

The study, launched on behalf of the United States Institute of Peace and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, also said US government institutions, including the Department of Defence, 'should provide capacity-building assistance to international partners who are willing to take measures to prevent genocide and mass atrocities.'

The genocide task force, launched last month, includes retired Marine General Anthony Zinni, two ex-senators, former US cabinet members and other former high-ranking government officials now in the private sector. -- AFP