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Senator Rand Paul wants Congress to declare war on Islamic State. Photo: AP

Washington: Senator Rand Paul is calling for a declaration of war against the so-called Islamic State, a move that promises to shake up the debate over the military campaign in Iraq and Syria as President Barack Obama prepares to ask Congress to grant him formal authority to use force.

Senator Paul, a likely presidential candidate who has emerged as one of the Republican Party's most cautious voices on military intervention, offered a very circumscribed definition of war in his proposal, which he outlined in an interview on Saturday. He would, for instance, limit the duration of military action to one year and significantly restrict the use of ground forces.

Unlike other resolutions circulating on Capitol Hill that would give the president various degrees of authority to use force against Islamic militants, Senator Paul would take the extra step of declaring war - something Congress has not done since World War II.

The president has said he will ask Congress for the explicit authority to fight the Islamic State, although administration officials have insisted that he has the legal power to continue the current campaign. That position has rankled many in Congress who are concerned that the White House has been waging war without the proper oversight or accountability.

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Senator Paul said Congress had ceded too much authority to the president because it had not been able to agree on a war policy of its own.

"War cannot be initiated without Congress," he said, acknowledging that efforts to set legal limits on the scope of the military campaign would face resistance from within his own party.

The administration has said that it is covered under two existing laws: a 2001 authorisation passed after the September 11, 2001 attacks, which Mr Obama has invoked to carry out strikes against suspected terrorists in Yemen and Somalia, and a 2002 authorisation sought by President George W. Bush for the Iraq war.

There are differences of opinion in Congress about what to do with those two laws. Senator Paul's resolution would repeal the 2002 authorisation and terminate the 2001 law after one year. But some lawmakers say those moves would tie the president's hands as commander-in-chief.

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Rand Paul calls for a formal war declaration against Islamic State