WORLD
The US Congress approves the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline
The US House of Representatives has passed a bill to approve the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline.
The legislation will now be put to a vote in the Senate next week, where its prospects are unclear.
The 875-mile (1,408km) pipeline would carry tar sands oil from Alberta, Canada, to the US state of Nebraska where it joins pipes running to Texas.
President Barack Obama is said to take a "dim view" of the legislation, but has not directly threatened a veto.
The project has pitted Republicans and other supporters, who say it will create much needed jobs, against many Democrats and environmentalists, who warn the pipeline will add to carbon emissions and contribute to global warming.
A state department report raised no major environmental objections in February, but the final recommendation was delayed amid a court battle over the project in Nebraska.
The state department is involved because the pipeline would cross an international border.
The Keystone XL pipeline aims to carry some 830,000 barrels of heavy crude a day from the fields in Alberta to Nebraska.
The oil would then be transported on existing pipes to refineries in Texas. The southern section of the project was finished last year.
"At some point, President Obama has to realise that his blockade of the Keystone XL pipeline is forcing American consumers to depend on volatile oil-rich regimes and is hurting our diplomatic relationship with our top trading partner - Canada," House Foreign Affairs committee chairman Ed Royce said in a statement.
The bill passed easily with a 252-161 vote, but it was not the first time the House had voted to approve the project.