Obama calls for new war powers to fight IS in State of the Union address

WASHINGTON DC - US President Barack Obama on Tuesday night urged lawmakers to endow him with new war powers to defeat Islamic State (IS) group militants, warning the battle would be long but eventually successful.

"This effort will take time. It will require focus. But we will succeed," Obama said in his State of the Union address, which highlighted several key Middle East issues.

"In Iraq and Syria, American leadership - including our military power - is stopping ISIL’s advance," the US commander-in-chief told US lawmakers.

"Instead of getting dragged into another ground war in the Middle East, we are leading a broad coalition, including Arab nations, to degrade and ultimately destroy this terrorist group," Obama said.

"We’re also supporting a moderate opposition in Syria that can help us in this effort, and assisting people everywhere who stand up to the bankrupt ideology of violent extremism."

But in order to emerge victorious, Obama told the gathered lawmakers to give him a new authorisation to use military force against the Islamic State group, also known as IS, which has seized a swathe of territory in Iraq and Syria.

The US has already unleashed dozens of airstrikes against the militants since September, using the powers enshrined in legislation adopted in the wake of the September 2001 attacks to hunt down Al-Qaeda and its affiliates.

But US officials have argued that a new Authorisation for Use of Military Force (AUMF) is needed.

"Tonight, I call on this Congress to show the world that we are united in this mission by passing a resolution to authorise the use of force against ISIL," Obama said.

Obama also pledged to make good on his promise to close the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, saying it was "time to finish the job".

"We have a profound commitment to justice - so it makes no sense to spend three million dollars per prisoner to keep open a prison that the world condemns and terrorists use to recruit," Obama said.

Turning to Iran, the US president warned the Republican-controlled Congress that any move to impose new sanctions could scupper delicate negotiations aimed at reaching a complex nuclear deal. "New sanctions passed by this Congress, at this moment in time, will all but guarantee that diplomacy fails ," Obama said.