America should boycott the Beijing Olympics if China refuses to cut ties with the Sudanese government, a City Council member and candidate for city comptroller, Simcha Felder, said.

“I believe that whatever is necessary should be done,” Mr. Felder, who represents parts of Brooklyn, told The New York Sun when asked about a boycott by American athletes. “There’s no point at which the efforts should stop.”

The suggestion comes as China faces increasing pressure from human rights groups, celebrities, and politicians to end arms sales to the Sudanese government and support tougher measures against the regime in the U.N. Security Council, where China has veto power. Last week, filmmaker Steven Spielberg announced that he would withdraw from his role as artistic adviser for the ceremonies, citing a lack of effort on China’s part to stop the genocide in the Sudanese region of Darfur.

The issue of a boycott, however, has divided activists. Governor Richardson of New Mexico suggested last year that America consider threatening to withdraw from the games, but some prominent organizations that have protested China, such as Dream for Darfur, explicitly reject the idea. President Bush said in an interview with the BBC on Thursday that he would attend the games. In lieu of a boycott, Mr. Felder said he hoped that the American Olympic athletes would take the opportunity to directly protest China’s involvement with the Sudanese government.

“For it to just go on as planned, without any consequence, does not make sense to me,” he said.

City politicians have opened up several fronts in their efforts to stop the violence in Sudan. Earlier this year, Mr. Felder and other council members attended protests outside the headquarters of NBC, demanding that the network withdraw its sponsorship of the games, and Mr. Felder introduced a City Council resolution calling on other companies to do the same.

Another City Council member and likely candidate for public advocate, Eric Gioia, spoke about Darfur at a protest last week outside the Chinese mission to the United Nations in Midtown. Although he does not favor an Olympics boycott, Mr. Gioia, who represents parts of Queens, has authored a City Council resolution calling on New York State and city pension funds to divest from companies that do business with Sudan. Mr. Gioia suggested that a New York divestment could spread to other financial institutions.

“In many ways New York is its own tipping point,” he said in a recent interview. “When we banned smoking, it all of a sudden became possible for France and Ireland to do the same, and so we send a message to hedge funds and municipal pension funds around the world that this is the direction we’re heading and maybe encourage them to do so as well.”

Mr. Gioia stopped short of calling for a boycott. “I feel for the athletes who have worked so hard their whole life for this moment,” he said.

The city comptroller, William Thompson, has not endorsed divesting from Sudan, but he has written to companies with ties to the country to explain their role in humanitarian efforts so that the pension board can factor it into its decision making.

The United Nations estimates that more than 200,000 people have been killed in Sudan since the violence began there in 2003.