Australia’s prime minister has asked for greater federal powers to fight raging bushfires in the country, amid official warnings that the blazes are about to brush through a national park near the capital, Canberra.

Axar.az reports citing PressTV that Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Wednesday that he wanted to establish a “legal framework that would allow the Commonwealth to declare a national state of emergency” before the next summer bush fire season, pointing out that the existing jurisdictions of federal and state governments were not conducive to the proper tackling of the fires.