The United States House of Representatives has voted overwhelmingly to set aside an effort to impeach President Trump on a sole charge of abuse of power for launching military strikes on Iran without congressional authorisation, Al Jazeera reports.

The Associated Press news agency reports that the attempt brought to the House by Democrat Al Green of Texas brought little debate and also split his party, many of whom joined with their Republican colleagues to vote down the impeachment attempt.

Speaking in advance of the vote, Green said he believed the US was at the “crossroads of democracy and autocracy”.

“I do this because no one person should have the power to take over 300 million people to war without consulting with the Congress of the United States of America,” Green said.

“I do this because I understand that the Constitution is going to be meaningful or it’s going to be meaningless,” he said.

Most Democrats joined the Republican majority to shelve the impeachment attempt with a vote tally of 344 to 79.