WASHINGTON - United States President Joe Biden welcomed a deal to avert a government shutdown on Saturday but called for Congress to swiftly approve aid to war-torn Ukraine after it was left out of the agreement.

“We cannot under any circumstances allow American support for Ukraine to be interrupted,” he said in a statement.

“I fully expect the Speaker will keep his commitment to the people of Ukraine and secure passage of the support needed to help Ukraine at this critical moment,” he added, referring to Republican House leader Kevin McCarthy.

Lawmakers must now wrangle over a separate Bill on US$24 billion (S$32.8 billion) in military assistance to Ukraine that Mr Biden wanted in the budget, with a vote possible early this week, US media reported.

Hard-right Republicans had strongly opposed the inclusion of Ukraine aid in the deal, despite support for it from moderate Republicans, including Mr McCarthy.

Arming and funding Kyiv in its desperate war against the Russian invasion has been a key policy plank for the Biden administration and, while the stopgap is temporary, it does raise questions over the political viability of renewing the multibillion-dollar flow of assistance.

Mr McCarthy said Russia’s invasion was “horrendous,” but insisted there could be “no blank cheque” for Ukraine.

“I have a real concern of what’s going to happen long term, but I don’t want to waste any money,” he said.

Mr Biden added that the deal to avert a shutdown was “good news for the American people” but added that “we should never have been in this position in the first place”. AFP