The United States has approved a legislation that would slap diplomatic and economic sanctions against Syria over its alleged role in supporting terrorism and developing weapons of mass destruction.

The US House of Representatives' International Relations Committee on Wednesday gave consent to the Bill -- the Syria Accountability Act -- by a vote of 33-2 and is expected to come up for debate in the full House of Representatives during the week of October 13-17, according to a committee summary. There is a companion bill in the Senate, but that legislation has not left the committee.

The measure would keep Syria on the Department of State's list of nations that sponsor terrorism, demand that Syria withdraw its troops from Lebanon and hold Syria responsible for terrorism against US military forces in Iraq.

The Bill calls for sanctions to be imposed until such time as President George W Bush declares that Syria has stopped sponsoring terrorism and has halted chemical and biological weapons programmes.

The sanctions bill is now expected to go before the full House of Representatives next week.

The BBC's Jon Leyne in Washington reports that the White House had initially opposed the legislation - but now that US President George Bush has dropped his objections, it is likely to become law.

Our correspondent says the bill is part of an increasingly hard line being taken by the US administration against Syria.

The move to toughen sanctions comes after Israel's air raid on an alleged Palestinian training camp in Syria at the weekend - a strike which President Bush refused to condemn.

"Syria needs to change course, change its behaviour, stop harbouring terrorists," White House spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters on

Wednesday.

The State Department has also dropped its opposition to imposing new sanctions on Syria.

Department spokesman Richard Boucher said US Secretary of State Colin Powell had made clear during a visit to Damascus in May that legislation would probably follow unless there were significant moves against extremist groups in Syria.

"And that's what we are seeing unfold, because Syria hasn't taken any significant action against terrorist groups," he said.

The legislation, to be known as the Syria Accountability Act, includes a ban on a number of US exports to Syria, specifically weapons and items that can be used in weapons programmes.

Once passed, it would also call on US President George Bush to select two sanctions from a list of six, ranging from freezing Syrian assets in the US to reducing diplomatic and business links.

During the Iraq war, Washington accused Damascus of harbouring fugitives from Saddam Hussein's regime.

The European Union has no plans to follow the United States in moving to impose wide-ranging sanctions on Syria, the European Commission said yesterday.

"It is obviously not our position, we are in the process of negotiating an association agreement with Syria," said Emma Udwin, spokeswoman for External Relations Commissioner Chris Patten.

"The policy of isolating Syria is not the most productive," she added.

On Wednesday, a key US congressional body, the House International Relations Committee, voted in favour of diplomatic and economic sanctions against Damascus, accusing it of supporting terrorism and developing weapons of mass destruction.