WASHINGTON, Dec 10 (Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush, voicing frustration at the international response to the crisis in Darfur, urged the United Nations on Wednesday to speed up its efforts and warned Sudan's president he would be held accountable.

"The United Nations must expedite sending troops, peacekeepers, to provide security for the people," Bush told reporters after a White House meeting with a leading human rights activist from Sudan's troubled Darfur region.

Bush has denounced the Sudanese government of President Omar Hassan al-Bashir for its policies in Darfur, where foreign experts say 200,000 people have died and 2.5 million have been driven from their homes in five years of fighting between rebels and the army and government-backed militias.

Bush has called it genocide, a charge the Sudanese government has rejected. The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court at The Hague asked the court in July to indict Bashir for war crimes and genocide in Darfur.

"It's very important for President Bashir to know that he cannot escape accountability, that if he so chooses, he can change people's lives," Bush said.

Pushing for stepped-up U.N. action to address the Darfur situation, Bush said: "I am frustrated with the pace of activities. ... The United States continues to stand at the ready to provide airlift. The pace of action out of the United Nations is too slow."

The deployment of a joint U.N.-African Union peacekeeping force for Darfur has lagged behind schedule.

Bush, who steps down on Jan. 20 when President-elect Barack Obama takes office, said the international community must keep up pressure on Sudan, but he also expressed support for mediation efforts under way.

Seated beside Bush was Halima Bashir, a rape-torture survivor-turned-rights activist now living in exile in London.

Bashir, who wrote a book about her ordeal, called for more work to "stop the genocide" in Darfur. "We do not need to wait anymore. We need real action," she said.

She wore red-white-and-black robes that covered everything except her eyes and muffled her voice, a precaution the White House said was to protect her identify in front of news photographers and camera crews. (Reporting by Matt Spetalnick; Editing by Peter Cooney)

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