Steven Spielberg is hoping his problem-solving skills will help United Nations officials find ways of ending the ongoing genocide in the Sudan.

The director met with U.N. Secretary General Ban Kimoon earlier this week to brainstorm ideas about how to keep the focus on issues in Darfur as global concern moves to issues in Tibet and Zimbabwe.

The meeting with Kimoon came two months after Spielberg quit as artistic director to the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China, over his concerns the Chinese government wasn’t doing enough to help end the genocide in the war-torn Darfur region of Sudan.

The moviemaker’s spokeswoman Andy Spahn tells the Los Angeles Times newspaper the low-key meeting was a success: "We went there to offer help in any way that we could.

"We will continue to try to focus public attention on the issue and to try to arrange meetings with those who have influence in Sudan."