A committee of members of Britain's upper House of Lords put forward a plan to give parliament the right to approve any decision to send British troops to war, The Times newspaper reported Friday.
The proposal, submitted in the form of a parliamentary convention, said future governments would have to justify military action, explain its legal status and seek parliament's consent for it, according to the daily.
The government would also have to detail the objective of its proposed military action, and estimate the likely duration of the deployment.
Both the unelected House of Lords and the elected lower House of Commons should be free to vote on whether or not to back the military action, the Lords Select Committee on the Constitution said, but if the two houses took different sides the view of the Commons would prevail.
British finance minister Gordon Brown and the leader of the main opposition Conservative Party, David Cameron, have both backed calls for parliament to be given a formal role in decisions over going to war, The Times reported.
But Prime Minister Tony Blair has declined to endorse them, saying that his government's decision to give parliament a vote over the March 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq set a precedent, suggesting that a formal role may be unnecessary.
Were parliament to approve a deployment, military commanders would be free to make operational decisions, but any change in strategy or circumstances would face another vote in parliament, according to the committee's proposed convention.
Parliamentary conventions, when approved, are procedural agreements but they are not binding.
The committee suggested opting for a convention instead of a change in the law because legislation would possibly be inflexible in the event of a military emergency, and could open the door for the possibility that British troops could be prosecuted, The Times said.
