The minister also called for a boycott of diamonds from rebel sources in Sierra Leone and other countries where they were being used to finance civil wars in other parts of Africa. He said: "Someone going into a jewellery shop should insist that what they are buying is not a blood diamond but a clean diamond."

Eve Goldberg, of the William Golberg Diamond Corp., one of the largest diamond cutters in New York, says she believes her firm is purchasing uncut diamonds from legitimate sources, but she admits "it's hard to tell" the origin of an uncut diamond.

Goldberg also concedes it's possible that some blood diamonds from the African war zones are making their way to New York City stores.

There are clean diamonds and blood diamonds. The world must ban the sale of blood diamonds.