Less war spending

Obama also seeks 205.5 billion dollars for wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, including 75.5 billion dollars through the end of this fiscal year, and 130 billion dollars for fiscal year 2010.

Aside from the war spending, he will also request 534 billion dollars for the Defense Department's other expenditures.

The amounts for the wars are less than Defense Secretary Robert Gates asked for and are in line with the expectation that the president plans a major reduction of US troops in Iraq.

The extra funding for fiscal 2009, which ends on Sept. 30, includes money for adding 17,000 personnel to the US force in Afghanistan.

Congress has already approved 65.9 billion dollars in emergency wartime spending for the first half of fiscal 2009.

In addition to the 75.5 billion dollars Obama is seeking, the latest request would bring the total to about 141.4 billion dollars, the lowest amount for war spending since fiscal 2006 when Congress approved 121.5 billion dollars.

Congress approved 187 billion dollars for fiscal 2008, the highest since the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

Administration officials said annual war costs will go down to 50 billion dollars annually as Obama is expected to announce a new plan to withdraw most troops from Iraq by August 2010.

Republicans' opposition 

"They've painted the worst-case scenario in order to make it as easy as possible to improve on," Maya MacGuineas, president of the bipartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, said.

"This budget is more realistic than we've seen in the past, in that it actually includes all the policies the administration is supporting. But I'd like to see them go much further in terms of fiscal responsibility in actually closing that deficit gap," he said.