(adds Bob Geldof, Sudanese witness)

By Ingrid Melander

BERLIN, March 25 (Reuters) - Germany joined British and U.S. calls on Sunday for more international pressure on Sudan and Zimbabwe, possibly including sanctions, but genocide survivors and human rights activists demanded action, not talk.

"On a day such as today, we think of the people in Zimbabwe and Darfur. The suffering there is unbearable," Chancellor Angela Merkel said in a speech at a summit in Berlin celebrating the European Union's 50th anniversary.

She said the EU was calling on Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir to allow U.N. peacekeepers into the country and comply with U.N. resolutions.

"We must look at stronger sanctions," Merkel, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the European Union, told an audience of EU leaders, referring to both countries.

Irish rocker and Africa activist Bob Geldof told reporters in Berlin: "I am glad that Chancellor Merkel mentioned sanctions but frankly ... just do it."

Speaking in Berlin's Jewish Museum with survivors of wars and genocides, Geldof said EU leaders should ban Sudan's leaders from travelling to the EU, freeze their assets, and bar exports of luxury goods to Khartoum, before tougher U.N. sanctions.

"NEVER AGAIN"

Khartoum has come under fresh pressure from Western powers to ease the suffering in war-torn Darfur.

Experts estimate 200,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million driven from their homes after rebels rose up in 2003, accusing the central government of neglecting the vast, impoverished region.

"Every time a genocide happens, leaders all over Europe, America, Britain, everywhere, they say never again. But these are empty words," Ishag Mekki, a Sudanese who lost family in the Darfur conflict, told the news conference.

"In reality it's happening and happening."

Mekki and survivors of the Nazi Holocaust, the genocide in Rwanda and war in Bosnia, called for immediate EU sanctions on Khartoum, saying that was the way for Europe to live up to the values it was celebrating on its anniversary.

Ten European intellectuals including Guenter Grass, Umberto Eco and Bernard Henri-Levy also called on Saturday for tough sanctions, accusing EU leaders of cowardice and dithering.

Britain wants the EU to back targeted U.N. sanctions against the Sudanese government over a conflict which has caused one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.

Washington calls the violence genocide and blames Khartoum for backing militias blamed for many of the worst atrocities.

Sudan again denied on Saturday that genocide was taking place and lambasted Britain and the United States for seeking sanctions, saying if diplomacy broke down Sudan could end up like Somalia, in anarchy since a 1991 coup ended central rule.

Britain and the United States have also led international condemnation of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe over a new crackdown on political opponents, threatening more economic sanctions on Mugabe and his government.

Mugabe vowed on Friday to survive any Western attempt to dislodge him from power.

AlertNet news is provided by