A US congressional panel has described the killing of Armenians by Turkish forces during World War I as genocide, despite White House objections.

The resolution was narrowly approved by the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

The administration had warned the panel that the vote would harm reconciliation talks between Turkey and Armenia.

It is unclear whether the non-binding resolution will now go forward to the full House but it is fiercely opposed by Turkey, a key ally of the US.

The resolution calls on President Barack Obama to ensure that US foreign policy reflects an understanding of the “genocide” and to label the World War I killings as such in his annual statement on the issue.

It was approved by 23 votes to 22 by the committee.

In 2007, a similar resolution passed the committee stage, but was shelved before a House vote after pressure from the George W Bush administration.

Turkey had warned of consequences for US-Turkey ties if the latest resolution was passed.

During his election campaign Mr Obama promised to brand the mass killings genocide.

‘Too important’

Before the vote, committee chairman Howard Berman urged fellow members of the committee to endorse the resolution.

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Q&A: Armenian genocide dispute

“I believe that Turkey values its relationship with the United States at least as much as we value our relations with Turkey,” he said.

The Turks, he added, “fundamentally agree that the US-Turkish alliance is simply too important to get side-tracked by a non-binding resolution passed by the House of Representatives”.

A Turkish parliamentary delegation had gone to Washington to try to persuade committee members not to approve the resolution.

In October last year, Turkey and Armenia signed a historic accord normalising relations between them after a century of hostility.

Armenia wants Turkey to recognise the killings as an act of genocide, but successive Turkish governments have refused to do so.

Hundreds of thousands of Armenians died in 1915, when they were deported en masse from eastern Anatolia by the Ottoman Empire. They were killed by troops or died from starvation and disease.

Armenians have campaigned for the killings to be recognised internationally as genocide – and more than 20 countries have done so.

Turkish officials accept that atrocities were committed but argue they were part of the war and that there was no systematic attempt to destroy the Christian Armenian people.

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