UNITED NATIONS (AP) - A prominent human rights group said Thursday the United States should offer reparations to blacks because of slavery, and it urged other countries to make similar pledges at a U.N. conference on racism next month in South Africa.

New York-based Human Rights Watch laid out suggested guidelines for reparations, an issue that has bedeviled plans for the conference and a proposed declaration against racism.

A two-week meeting in Geneva intended to draw up an agenda for the conference ended in deadlock June 1 over whether nations that benefited from slavery should formally apologize and pay compensation.

The Bush administration opposes offering financial reparations or a formal apology, saying they would not help fight racism today.

Human Rights Watch said such reparations could be more palatable for governments if the money is put into poverty-fighting programs instead of cash payments to individuals.

The group called on countries to admit that racist institutions like slavery, apartheid, or Jim Crow laws were ``serious human rights violations.''

However, Human Rights Watch admitted there are practical problems with trying to make amends many generations later.

``If one goes back far enough, most everyone could make a case of some sort for reparations, trivializing the concept,'' it said.

The group called for ``truth-telling'' panels to examine past crimes, followed by anti-poverty programs.

It said those programs should:

- Target the poorest members of minorities, not those who have managed to surmount lingering racism.

- Be paid for by the entire country, not select groups such as descendants of white slave owners.

- Encourage the building of monuments or museums so that the sins of the past are remembered.