GENEVA (Reuters) - A former U.S. Republican governor, who stunned the nation by stopping executions in his state, called on the United Nations Monday to step up a campaign for worldwide abolition of the death penalty.

George Ryan, governor of Illinois from 1999-2003, told the U.N. Human Rights Commission the system in the United States was ``broken, racist and inaccurate'' and was no better and often much worse wherever the penalty was used.

``It is now time to strengthen the process for abolition through a moratorium established by the U.N. General Assembly,'' he told the 53-member Commission, a majority of which has voted for a global moratorium every year since 1997.

As he left office in January 2003, Ryan gained international acclaim from death penalty opponents for imposing a moratorium on executions in Illinois after investigations found that 13 innocent prisoners had been sentenced to death.

The move touched off a new debate over capital punishment in the country. Ryan's moratorium still stands in Illinois.

``In the name of human rights, morality and mercy, I ask why not stop the machinery of death (so as) to study its accuracy, its fairness and its faults?'' asked Ryan whose campaigning on the issue has met fierce criticism from the Bush administration.

The Commission, which apart from the United States includes other top death penalty countries China, Iran and Saudi Arabia, is expected to renew the moratorium call this week in a resolution presented by Ireland for the European

Union.

But the ``Hands off Cain'' abolitionist movement, sponsored by the Italy-based Transnational Radical Party, and other campaigners against the penalty argue that the effort should now be focused on the United Nations as a whole.

Ryan, a lifelong Republican who says he only began to question the penalty when he became governor and as ``executioner-in-chief'' had to make life-or-death decisions himself, is honorary president of ``Hands off Cain.''

Earlier this month, human rights body Amnesty International said China, Iran, the United States, Vietnam and Saudi Arabia were the world's top five users of the death penalty although more and more countries were abolishing or suspending it.

Amnesty says it is not used in 117 countries, and that most of the 62 who retain it as a punishment for a range of offences have dictatorial or authoritarian governments.

Ryan, who served for over 30 years as an elected Republican official in Illinois, told reporters before speaking to the Commission that Attorney-General John Ashcroft was working to overturn moratoriums now declared in some other U.S. states.

But Ryan said he would continue efforts through a Chicago university-based campaigning body to inform the U.S. public and government officials on the need to change the system and bring it in line with that of most other democratic countries.

In December last year, Ryan pleaded not guilty to corruption charges and accused the federal government of conducting a probe that he said had torn apart his life.

He faces a 22-count indictment in which the government alleges he used public office to enrich himself, family and associates.