Republicans use spending bill deadline to try and limit Syrian refugee resettlement in the US

Conservative members of Congress are trying to tie the Obama administration's Syrian refugee resettlement programme to a spending bill that must pass by the end of the month

: Refugees arrive at the Moria camp on Lesbos, Greece AP (AP)

Republicans in the House of Representatives in the US are promising to support temporary spending measures in a bill that has to be passed to keep the federal government open, but only if it includes a suspension on allowing Syrians into the county.

The 'Freedom Caucus', made up of 42 conservative Congress members, said that limiting the numbers of refugees allowed into the US is a “high priority”. “We should not be allowing refugees from terrorist regions of the world, without proper vetting,” Caucus member Republican Representative John Fleming told reporters.

President Barack Obama promised to resettle 10,000 refugees from the conflict in Syria before the end of fiscal year 2016, meeting the target a month early. His administration is now working with Congress to increase the target by another 10,000 during 2017.

The move by the Freedom Caucus could complicate congressional leaders' efforts to pass the spending bill on time before the fiscal year ends on September 30.

When a similar budget bill failed to pass through Congress in 2013 before the start of the new fiscal year, it led to a 16-day federal government shutdown which cost the country $24bn (£20bn) and left 800,000 people without pay.

While Obama's promise to allow Syrian refugees into the country was met with criticism from Republicans, including 2016 presidential nominee Donald Trump, who said it would threaten national security, the US has taken in far fewer refugees than some of its allies.

Canada resettled 30,000 Syrians in 2015. In the same period, Germany accepted approximately 100,000 asylum applications in total.

The United Nations in New York is due to host a high-level summit on refugees and migration later this month. It is expected that Western countries will be urged to do more to help the global refugee crisis.

Syria's neighbours Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon continue to bear the brunt of the fall out from Syria's civil war, hosting approximately 3m people between them.

Additional reporting by agencies