WASHINGTON, March 3 (Xinhuanet) -- The U.S. Senate has called on President George W. Bush to take swift action on Sudan's Darfur region and pressed NATO to send troops to the region, local media reported on Friday.

    The Senate adopted the resolution last Thursday by a voice vote unanimously, which also called on the U.N. Security Council to approve a peace enforcement mission for the region.

    "The United States must lead international efforts to stop the killing of innocent men, women and children in Darfur," Democratic Senator Joseph Biden said in a statement on Friday.

    Biden said Bush should begin coordinating immediately with the leadership of the African Union and the United States' NATO allies to "stop the ongoing violence in Darfur."

    "The people of Darfur cannot wait for a United Nations peacekeeping force that may take a year to get on the ground," he said.

    On Feb. 17, Bush said that the situation in the Darfur region might require double the number of international peacekeepers there, and he was working with other nations for more troops in Darfur, which could be put under NATO leadership.

    News reports said nearly 300,000 people have been killed and over 2 million others displaced during the three-year-long civil war in the Darfur region.

    Some 7,000 peacekeepers from the African Union were deployed in Darfur in 2004, but they have been suffering from a shortage of fund and inadequate resources to stop the war. Enditem