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By Patricia Zengerle WASHINGTON (Reuters) - South Sudan risks losing hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. aid if its government and rebel leaders do not end a wave of violence in the fledgling democracy formed with Washington's strong support, U.S. officials said on Thursday. Three weeks of fighting, often along ethnic lines, is ringing alarm bells in Washington over the prospect that the conflict could spiral into full-blown civil war, spawning atrocities or making South Sudan the world's next failed state. President Barack Obama's administration has pledged $50 million in humanitarian aid for the people of South Sudan, but government officials and senators said during the hearing that hundreds of millions in support to the government could be stopped if the violence continues. "I would suspect that at a point if this violence continues that we would suspend that support," Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, said at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on the crisis in South Sudan.More...