WASHINGTON - The US Senate voted Thursday in favor of the request from President Barack Obama to increase the federal debt limit by $1.2 trillion.

Thursday's 52-44 vote in the Democrat-controlled chamber cleared the way for the $1.2 trillion increase in the federal government's borrowing limit, frustrating the Republican attempt to prevent the president's request from taking effect.  

The Republican-led House voted last week along party lines and objected the debt limit hike sought by Obama. But the vote is considered as symbolic because the winning tally fell far short of the two-thirds majority needed to override a presidential vote.

As part of the bipartisan deal inked last summer, the president is given the power to veto the Congress objections to guarantee the increase of debt ceiling as long as his petition is not blocked by a two-third majority in both chambers.

Obama on Jan 12 requested Congress to raise the federal government's borrowing limit by $1.2 trillion, as the federal government was facing mounting budgetary pressure. It was the third and final request he could make under the bipartisan deal reached last August to prevent the country from a default.

After months of partisan bickering, Republicans and Democrats last August agreed to increase the federal government's borrowing limit by $2.1 trillion from about $14.3 trillion in three steps. The borrowing limit of the US federal government was raised in August and September 2011 by $400 billion and 500 billion respectively.

The 1.2 trillion debt limit hike would bring the country's debt ceiling to $16.4 trillion and fund the government through the November presidential election.