Saying the Darfur peace agreement was in danger, Rep. Christopher H. Smith (R., N.J.) has called on the Bush administration to appoint a special envoy to mediate among warring factions in the region.

    Smith, the third-ranking member of the House International Relations Committee, said the administration had shifted its focus from Darfur as problems cascaded in Lebanon and other hot spots.

    "This is a matter of the utmost urgency," he said at a Capitol Hill news conference. "We believe we are at a crucial time where effective action needs to be taken."

    The Sudanese government and leaders of the largest Darfur rebel group signed a peace agreement May 5 calling for an end to hostilities. A key player was former Deputy Secretary of State Robert B. Zoellick, the Bush administration's former point man on the conflict.

    Zoellick resigned July 7 to take a job on Wall Street, and since then, Smith said, the administration has turned its attention to other crises. An envoy appointed by the president would change that, said Smith, who has carved a niche for himself on human-rights issues.

    "With all the problems remaining in the Sudan, from the continuing violence in Darfur to the slow implementation [of an earlier peace agreement] that ended the north-south conflict, a special envoy for Sudan is very much needed," Smith said. "Congress needs to push the Bush administration until that becomes a reality."

    The conflict in the Darfur region of western Sudan began in early 2003 when rebel groups attacked government installations. Government-backed militias called Janjaweed have swept through the area on horseback, killing and raping residents and emptying villages. Aid organizations estimate that as many as 400,000 people have died and that millions have been displaced.

    Congress and President Bush have said the attacks amounted to genocide.

    Nancy Beck, a spokeswoman for the State Department, said yesterday that Jendayi E. Frazer, assistant secretary of state for African affairs, had been heading efforts to see that the Darfur peace deal is carried out after Zoellick's departure. She would not say whether the State Department endorsed the proposal for a special envoy on Darfur.

    Smith said that in the absence of a more senior U.S. government official following up on the May peace accord, the region was at risk of collapsing into full-scale sectarian strife once again. Even now, he said, renegade militia units with ties to the Sudanese government are conducting raids in Darfur.