WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is open to negotiating with Congress on his request for new authorization for military force against Islamic State militants, including his proposed three-year time limit on U.S. military action and the use of American troops, according to the White House.

After a weeklong holiday break, lawmakers return to Washington on Monday and start work on Obama's request. Some Republicans say Obama's proposal is too restrictive for the mission to succeed. On the other side, some Democrats want more limitations on Obama's authority so the United States doesn't sign on for another open-ended war.

White House officials said Obama is firmly opposed to any geographic restrictions on where the U.S. military can pursue Islamic State militants, who have strongholds in Iraq and Syria but have been operating across international boundaries. But they said he is open to debate on much of the rest of his offer and is willing to discuss the three-year time limit in Obama's draft and the hotly debated section on ground troops.

"I'm not at all going to be surprised if there are members of Congress who take a look at this legislation and decide, 'Well, I think there are some things that we should tweak here, and if we do, we might be able to build some more support for,'" said White House press secretary Josh Earnest. "So I think it is fair for you to assume that this reflects a starting point in conversations."

Obama argues he doesn't need a new authorization to pursue Islamic State terrorists legally — and he's been launching strikes against them for months based on authorizations given to President George W. Bush after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. But critics say Obama's use of those authorizations is a stretch at best, and the White House has taken a new position that makes it clear it doesn't see reliance on that authority as ideal, either. White House officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the negotiations on the record.

The White House now says if a new authorization is signed into law, Obama will no longer rely on the authority approved in 2001 to pursue the Islamic State group and instead solely rely on the new powers. A White House official said Congress could make that clear within the statute by adding that limitation to the authorization. The official said if they do not add such language but still pass a new authorization, Obama will consider it his sole basis for operations against the militant group.

View gallery

In this undated file image posted on Monday, June 30, 2014, by the Raqqa Media Center of the I …

The change would prevent any future president from interpreting the law the way Obama has since last year — if not directly in the law as passed by Congress, through precedent once Obama declares a new authorization his sole authority for military action against IS.

California Rep. Adam Schiff, the top ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, has been pushing the White House to include a sunset of the 2001 authorization as part of the new debate.

"I'm very skeptical about our ability to rewrite the 2001 authorization after we go through a debate on the ISIL operation," Schiff said in an interview. "I'm not sure we have the appetite to go through another round."

Obama has said he wants to refine and ultimately repeal the 2001 authorization. But besides the Islamic State campaign, the president also is also using the law as the legal basis for the continued operation of the detention center at Guantanamo Bay and attacks on militants in Yemen and elsewhere.

Obama's proposal includes a three-year limit that would require the next president to come back to Congress and ask for renewal — if, as Obama predicts, the fight against the Islamic State is still ongoing. He also proposes a ban on "enduring offensive combat operations" as an attempt to bridge the divide in Congress over the role of ground troops.

View gallery

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn. prepares to speak to reporters …

Obama said the language gives him the ability for rescue missions, intelligence collection and the use of special operations forces in possible military action against Islamic State leaders. "It is not the authorization of another ground war, like Afghanistan or Iraq," Obama said as he announced the proposal Feb. 11.

But White House officials say they are open to alternatives to that language as long as they maintain the president's flexibility to send in ground troops for targeted missions when needed.

In a signal of the measure's uncertain future, the White House and lawmakers are calling on one another to take responsibility to see the legislation through with neither side wanting to be responsible for the political failure if it doesn't.

"Now they are seeking something, so it's incumbent on them to come up and lay out a way forward," said Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Corker, R-Tenn., who plans to hold hearings on the legislation over the next couple of weeks. In an interview, Corker said he's keeping options open on the best way to proceed — whether it's by amending Obama's proposal or to "start whole cloth from a clean fresh beginning."

___

Follow Nedra Pickler on Twitter at https://twitter.com/nedrapickler

Related video:

ABOARD THE CHARLES DE GAULLE (AFP) - A French aircraft carrier launched operations against the Islamic State group on Monday as the new Pentagon chief summoned top generals and diplomats to Kuwait to review the war effort.

US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter vowed the jihadists would suffer a "lasting defeat" as he convened the extraordinary meeting of more than two dozen senior military officers, ambassadors and intelligence officials at the sprawling US Army base of Camp Arifjan.

Washington forged a coalition of Western and Arab nations to confront IS after the Sunni extremist group seized control of large parts of Syria and Iraq and declared an Islamic "caliphate" last year.

The coalition has since carried out more than 2,000 air strikes against the jihadists and France boosted its participation on Monday with the Charles de Gaulle carrier launching raids from the Gulf.

"This threat, jihadist terrorism, wants to reach our citizens, our interests, our values. France's response will be total firmness," Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said on board, seven weeks after extremist attacks killed 17 people in Paris.

Four Rafale fighter jets took off in the morning from the French carrier about 200 kilometres (120 miles) north of Bahrain in the direction of Iraq.

View gallery

French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian disembarks from a US Navy helicopter onboard the aircraft …

Carrying 12 Rafale and nine Super Etendard fighters, the carrier will spend eight weeks in the Gulf working alongside the USS Carl Vinson, significantly increasing France's regional air capabilities.

- 25 strikes in 24 hours -

France, along with Australia, is a main contributor to the 32-member coalition effort aside from the United States, which is carrying out the bulk of strikes.

France and other Western nations are conducting operations over Iraq and several Arab nations are taking part in strikes over Syria.

Coalition aircraft launched 18 strikes against IS targets in Syria and seven in Iraq in the 24 hours to 0600 GMT on Monday, the Pentagon said.

View gallery

US Secretary of Defense Ash Carter addresses troops at US Camp Arifjan in Kuwait on February 23, 201 …

The air campaign aims to support fighters on the ground in Iraq and Syria, including rebels and Kurdish forces, battling IS and to hit infrastructure such as oil facilities seized by the jihadists.

"Air support... for our Iraqi and Kurdish allies has helped curb the territorial expansion of (IS) and stabilise the front lines. This was our first objective and it has been attained," Le Drian said.

While excluding the deployment of ground combat troops, coalition states have also sent training units to work with Iraqi forces.

In Kuwait only days after taking office, Carter told US troops at Camp Arifjan that the coalition was "pressing" IS "very ably from Kuwait and elsewhere".

- 'Larger threat' -

View gallery

Iraqi Kurdish forces hold a position near Al-Assal village, near the northern city of Kirkuk, on Feb …

"And we will deliver lasting defeat, make no doubt," he said.

"ISIL is not just a threat to Iraq and Syria. It's a larger threat to the region," said Carter, using an alternative acronym for the group.

US Lieutenant General James Terry, who oversees the anti-IS campaign, said some 800 Iraqi forces backed by US warplanes were fighting to retake Al-Baghdadi from IS.

The Western Iraqi town is near the Iraqi army's Al-Asad base, where 300 US troops are stationed to train local forces.

"The capabilities that we're seeing in the Iraqi security forces are growing," Terry told reporters.

View gallery

Weapons ordonances load a bomb on a French Super Etendard jet onboard the Charles de Gaulle aircraft …

IS influence has spread as it cements its hold on territory in Syria and Iraq, with jihadist groups in several countries pledging allegiance.

The Libyan branch claimed responsibility for suicide bombings last week that officials said killed 40, as well as the beheadings of 21 Coptic Christians, mostly Egyptian.

The Kuwait meeting was not intended to produce a new strategy but to allow Carter to better understand the IS challenge and efforts aimed at defeating it, a senior US defence official said.

The coalition campaign has dealt significant damage to the jihadists, with a monitoring group saying Monday that 1,465 IS members had been killed in the first five months of air strikes in Syria.

Another 73 fighters from Al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate Al-Nusra Front had been killed, as had 62 civilians, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

US military officials have said they want Iraqi forces to launch an offensive to retake the strategic northern city of Mosul from IS in April or May.

Members of the Ukrainian armed forces ride military vehicles near Artemivsk, eastern Ukraine, February 22, 2015. REUTERS/Gleb Garanich

By Pavel Polityuk and Anton Zverev

KIEV/DONETSK, Ukraine (Reuters) - Ukraine's military said on Monday it could not start withdrawing heavy weapons from the front line in the east as required under a tenuous ceasefire because pro-Russian separatists who advanced last week were still attacking its positions.

A truce to end fighting that has killed more than 5,600 people appeared stillborn last week after rebels ignored it to capture the strategic town of Debaltseve in a punishing defeat for Kiev.

Nevertheless, the peace deal's European sponsors still hold out hope it can be salvaged, now that the Moscow-backed separatists have achieved that objective.

Kiev says it fears the rebels, backed by reinforcements of Russian troops, are planning to advance deeper into territory the Kremlin calls "New Russia". Moscow denies aiding the rebels.

Fighting has diminished since Kiev's forces abandoned Debaltseve in defeat last Wednesday, and there were hopeful signs for the truce over the weekend, with an overnight exchange of around 200 prisoners late on Saturday and an agreement on Sunday to begin pulling back artillery from the front.

View gallery

A fighter with the separatist self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic army looks at a burnt ve …

But Kiev said on Monday that it still could not start the artillery withdrawal.

"Given that the positions of Ukrainian servicemen continue to be shelled, there can not yet be any talk of pulling back weapons," spokesman Vladislav Seleznyov said in a televised briefing.

Anatoly Stelmakh, another military spokesman, said rebel forces had attacked the village of Shyrokyne overnight, along the coast on the road to Mariupol, a port of half a million that Kiev fears could be the next big rebel target.

"The fighters have not stopped their attempts to storm our positions in Shyrokyne, in the direction of Mariupol. At midnight the armed groups again attempted unsuccessfully to attack our soldiers. The battle lasted half an hour."

Rebel commander Eduard Basurin denied the fighters had launched any such attack, and said the situation was calm. "At the moment all is quiet, there is no shelling," he told Reuters.

View gallery

A fighter with the separatist self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic army looks at a destroye …

In the biggest rebel stronghold Donetsk, occasional artillery fire could be heard through the night and on Monday morning, although it was not clear who was firing and it was far less intense than before the truce.

The separatist press service DAN reported two homes destroyed by shelling on the city's outskirts overnight.

Nearly a million people have been driven from their homes by the war between pro-Moscow separatists in eastern Ukraine and government forces. Last week's ceasefire was reached after the rebels abandoned a previous truce to launch their advance, arguing that previous battle lines had left their civilians vulnerable to government shelling.

"I hope, I just hope, in the truce. No one knows what will happen with the way the sides are behaving," said Donetsk resident Sergei, 52. "Now it's quiet, it's ok on the streets. You want such quiet. It was difficult to sleep before, not knowing whether you would wake up."

Kiev says the rebels are reinforcing near Mariupol for a possible assault on the port, the biggest city in the two rebellious provinces still in government hands. Defence analyst Dmytro Tymchuk, who has close ties to the military, said rebels had brought 350 fighters and 20 armoured vehicles including six tanks to the area.

Kiev also fears unrest could spread from the war zone to other parts of the mainly Russian-speaking east, where its troops are firmly in control and most residents are loyal but violent separatist demonstrations have occasionally flared in the past year.

Two people were killed on Sunday in Kharkiv, 200 km (140 miles) from the war zone, in a blast at a demonstration marking the anniversary of the deaths of 100 protesters a year ago in an uprising that toppled the country's pro-Moscow leader. Kiev said it had arrested four suspects who had received weapons and instructions in Russia.

(Reporting by Pavel Polityuk in Kiev and Anton Zverev in Donetsk; Writing by Alessandra Prentice and Peter Graff; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)

Theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking arrives at the British Academy of Film and Arts (BAFTA) awards ceremony at the Royal Opera House in London February 8, 2015. REUTERS/Suzanne Plunkett

A theory of everything might be impossible to come by — but a theory of humankind’s potential destruction is not, says Stephen Hawking.

The British theoretical physicist fears that human aggression may be the tragic flaw that could lead to our demise.

“The human failing I would most like to correct is aggression,” Hawking said,according to a blog post on the website for London’s Science Museum. “It may have had survival advantage in caveman days, to get more food, territory or partner with whom to reproduce, but now it threatens to destroy us all.”

A major nuclear war could be the end of civilization and possibly the human race, he said.

“The quality I would most like to magnify is empathy. It brings us together in a peaceful, loving state,” he added.

These thoughts were offered in response to a two-part question from Adaeze Uyanwah, a 24-year-old from California.

Londons Guest @LondonGuest Follow Stephen Hawking & I at the @sciencemuseum. I learnt so much from this amazing man! You also have to see the museum! 6:15 AM - 20 Feb 2015 23 RETWEETS 47 FAVORITES

Uyanwah, who was on a special tour of the Science Museum guided by Hawking, asked which common human features he would most want to magnify or alter.

She beat out 10,000 contestants from around the world to become the city’s “Official Guest of Honor.”

Londons Guest @LondonGuest Follow Talking to #StephenHawking was truly inspirational and he has such an awesome sense of humour! 7:03 AM - 20 Feb 2015 11 RETWEETS 13 FAVORITES

“It’s incredible to think that decades from now, when my grandchildren are learning Stephen Hawking’s theories in science class,” she said, “I’ll be able to tell them I had a personal meeting with him and heard his views firsthand.”

British actor Eddie Redmayne won the Oscar for Best Actor on Sunday night for his portrayal of the acclaimed physicist in “The Theory of Everything.”