Pentagon demands $63bn handout

The Pentagon yesterday pleaded poverty and said that unless the US Congress urgently approved almost $63bn (about £40bn) in extra funding, it would run out of cash by May.

"We can't fund our regular operations if we don't get this money," a senior defence department official told journalists. "In fact, the services have or have just about totally depleted their funding in their operations and maintenance accounts," the official added.

President Bush formally asked Congress for the money yesterday, in a supplementary budget request he hopes - and expects - will be accepted before April 11. The president requested $75bn in all, including extra war-related money for the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security. The request is based on a guesstimate that the war might last 30 days, far longer than most administration officials would actually have expected when they did their sums. However, the emergence of guerrilla resistance over the past few days means there is at least a slim chance that this might be an underestimate.

With Washington a war capital once again, and normal politics effectively suspended, the request is likely to undergo far less scrutiny than would normally be the case. There is no chance of forces in Iraq running out of bullets.

Even so, David Obey, the senior Democrat on the House of Representatives' appropriations committee, warned that the administration could not expect a blank cheque.

"We need to provide every single dime the troops need, but I do think we need to know where it's going and for what purpose," Mr Obey said, adding that the defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, could not expect to usurp Congress's role in monitoring spending. Democrats also claim that the White House is gravely underestimating the costs of rebuilding Iraq, given that there is little chance of other countries providing substantial assistance.

Until now, the president has refused to estimate any costs for the Iraq campaign, and last week both houses of Congress gave him almost all the tax reductions, targeted at top-end taxpayers, that he requested without being given any figures for the costs of the war and its aftermath.

The White House budget projects a deficit this year of more than $300bn but, now that the war has been factored in, an official admitted yesterday that the figure is likely to be $400bn. Critics contend that even this figure is likely to fall far short of grim reality.

Already, many non-defence related government activities are being squeezed. Most of the 50 states, nearly all of which are constitutionally obliged to balance their budgets, have financial shortfalls that range from the unpleasant to the horrendous.