Britain looks poised to join air strikes on Islamic State targets in Syria after British Prime Minister David Cameron announced a vote will be held in parliament this week.
The news came after the Labour party decided to let its MPs have a conscience vote on the issue.
But Labour was left looking deeply split on the issue after its left-wing leader Jeremy Corbyn confirmed that he would vote against air strikes while a string of other centrist MPs said they would support them.
"I can announce that I will be recommending to Cabinet tomorrow that we hold a debate and a vote in the House of Commons to extend the air strikes," Cameron said in a televised statement.
"We will make sure that we have a very long and full debate on Wednesday (local time)."
Cameron has wanted Britain to extend its operations against IS jihadists in Iraq to Syria for months but held back because he would not have been able to gain support from parliament due to Labour opposition.
His previous government suffered one of its most embarrassing defeats in 2013 when it was defeated on a plan to take military action against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad in Syria.
However, in the wake of this month's Paris attacks which killed 130 people, he has made a fresh push for Britain to extend its role in the fight against IS.
In his statement, the prime minister said Britain wanted to "answer the call from our allies and work with them because ISIL is a threat to our country and this is the right thing to do."
Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said he was now "confident" that most MPs would support air strikes when there was a vote.
AFP
