The Bush administration may ask for US$50 billion for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan in 2005, Joshua Bolten, director of the Office of Management and Budget, said Monday. 

The figure might be the upper limit, as outlays in 2004 were projected at well below US$50 billion for the ongoing operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, Bolten told a news briefing on the government's proposed budget for the 2005 fiscal year.

US$50 billion should be regarded "as the upper limit for what will be needed in 05" for Iraq and Afghanistan, he said.

"The needs will be less, but it will all depend entirely on the security situation," Bolten said.

President George W. Bush sent to the Congress on Monday a US$2.4 trillion budget for the 2005 fiscal year, with big increases for defense and homeland security.

But the budge does not allocate money for US operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, which are expected to be covered by supplemental legislation after the presidential election in November.

The budget increases defense spending by 7 percent, homeland security by nearly 10 percent, but holds the rest of discretionary spending to half of 1 percent, less than the rate of inflation, according to Bolten.

Since the Sept. 11 attacks, more than three-quarters of the increase in the federal government's discretionary spending has been directly related to the response to the attacks, enhanced homeland security and the war on terror, he said.

The 2005 budget continues the spending trend with significant increases in funding for security programs and a dramatic reduction in the growth of discretionary spending unrelated to security, said Bolten.

Bolten said the government projects to cut the deficit by more than half over the next five years, and the reduction will begin in the 2005 fiscal year with a projected deficit of US$364 billion, roughly 3 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP). 

(Xinhua News Agency February 3, 2004)