By Richard Waddington

GENEVA, March 12 (Reuters) - The international community must "step up to the plate" and act to stop the massacre of civilians in Darfur, the head of a United Nations rights mission said on Monday.

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Jody Williams, whose team issued on Monday a damning report of killings and rape in the vast western region of Sudan, told Reuters that a similar international stance was needed to the one that had helped end apartheid in South Africa.

"When a state fails, the international community has to step up to the plate. We are not talking about regime change ... but to protect civilians who have done nothing to deserve being massacred," she said in a telephone interview.

The report accused Khartoum of orchestrating and taking part in gross violations in Darfur, where the United Nations says some 200,000 people have died since a revolt began in 2003. The Sudanese government denies responsibility for rights violations and blames abuses on rebels.

The outspoken anti-landmine campaigner, whose team could only travel to neighbouring Chad after being denied access to Sudan, said that she could not understand how the findings could be criticised as "unbalanced."

"Does that mean that if you criticise the United States or Israel for violations of human rights, that is balanced and objective. But if you criticise a member of the Organisation of Islamic Conference, i.e. Sudan, that is not balanced and objective?" Williams said.

'TREATING US LIKE PARIAHS'

She mentioned no names, but diplomats said that some members of the 47-state U.N. Human Rights Council were floating the idea of refusing to accept her report on the grounds that not all the members originally appointed took part.

After Sudan refused visas to the six-strong team, which travelled to the region in February, Indonesia's ambassador Makarim Wibisono withdrew and took no further part in the mission.

The American, who won her Nobel prize jointly with the International Campaign to Ban Landmines in 1997, said the mission tried several times to hear the views of Khartoum.

"They made it difficult to have a pleasant view of them. It is Khartoum that really suffers in the long run from not letting us in and treating us like pariahs," she said.

Williams said she would not travel to Geneva for the Council session this week if it refused to admit the 35-page report.

"The indicators are at the moment that someone is going to try to block the presentation of the report, which does not bode well for the future (of the Council)," she said.

The Council, which was launched last year as part of a programme of U.N. reform, replaced the largely discredited Human Rights Commission.

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