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Bush to ask for $46bn for wars
22/10/2007 21:26 - (SA)
Washington - President George W Bush will ask US lawmakers for another $46bn to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and finance other US security needs, The Associated Press has learned.
The figure, which Bush was expected to announce later on Monday at the White House, brings to $196.4bn the total requested by the administration for operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere for the budget year that started October 1.
It includes $189.3bn for the Defence Department, $6.9bn for the State Department and $200m for other agencies.
The figures were disclosed by congressional officials briefed on the request this morning and who spoke on condition of anonymity because the announcement had not yet been made.
The Iraq war, now in its fifth year, already has cost more than $455bn, with stepped-up military operations running about $12bn a month.
The war has claimed the lives of more than 3 830 members of the US military and more than 73 000 Iraqi civilians.
The White House originally asked for $141.7bn for the Pentagon to prosecute the Iraq and Afghanistan missions. The latest request includes $42.3bn more for the Pentagon - already revealed in summary last month - and is accompanied by a modified State Department request bringing that agency's total for the 2008 budget year to almost $7bn.
The State Department is requesting $550m to combat drug trafficking in Mexico and Central America, $375m for the West Bank and Gaza and $239m for diplomatic costs in Iraq.
Top House of Representatives lawmakers have already announced that they do not plan to act on Bush's request until next year, though they anticipate providing interim funds when completing a separate defence funding bill this fall.
- AP
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