Thursday, December 15 2005 17:49 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Washington: The US House of Representatives has paved the way for a federal health building being named after Mother Teresa, who was described by the Speaker as an "enormously important historical figure."

The House yesterday approved by voice vote a bill that would name one of the two Disease Control and Prevention buildings in Atlanta, Georgia after Mother Teresa.

The other building will be named after American civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks, who died this year.

The House move was a rebuff to efforts in the US Senate to have the buildings to be named after Senators Tom Harkin and Arlen Specter.

The Speaker of the House, Dennis Hastert, in a letter to Illinois Senator Barack Obama justified the move saying the bill "appropriately recognises two enormously important historical figures" and urged the first term Democrat to get the bill passed in the Senate soon, The Washington Times reported.

The Senate in its version, tagged to a spending bill, had called for the federal health buildings to be named after Senators Harkin and Specter.

It has been noted that Senator Specter is the Chair of a sub-committee that gives money for labour, health and human services and Senator Harkin is the ranking Democract on the same panel.