Top US general says cost of Iraq conflict growing

A top US general said Wednesday that the Iraqi military operation would cost more money than expected, citing the need to deploy more US troops in Iraq than the Pentagon had planned.

General Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the House Armed Services Committee that it would cost an estimated 700 million dollars just to keep 20,000 troops in Iraq for an extra three months.

"Additional time in Iraq is going to cost us more money," Myers said. "We are working those estimates right now."

The Bush administration has funded the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan with supplemental appropriations that are not included in its budget requests. Congress has passed two bills appropriating more than 160 billion dollars since the war started last March.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan said the administration did not expect to seek additional money before January, but President George W. Bush "is committed to making sure our troops have every thing they need to do their job," he added.

Two senators said the US military will need at least 50 billion dollars to keep troops in Iraq for the next year, and the Bush administration is trying to avoid disclosing the price tag because of election-year politics.

"Every ground squirrel in this country knows that it's going to be 50 billion dollars to 75 billion dollars in additional money required to sustain us in Iraq for this year," Senator Chuck Hagel, Republican from Nebraska, told NBC's "Today" show.

Hagel and Senator Joseph Biden, Democrat from Delaware, said the White House has not sought more funding for the war to avoid criticism in an election year.

"Why aren't they asking for it? They don't know? We already know it's going to cost at least a minimum of 60 billion dollars to keep the troops there," Biden told the "Today" show.

Source: Xinhua