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Britain tops up war budget
LONDON, England (CNN) -- UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown increased Britain's war budget to £3 billion ($4.7 billion) on Thursday as the conflict in Iraq looks set to last longer than expected. "I am allocating today a further one-and-a-quarter billion pounds to increase the special reserves to three billion to be drawn by the Ministry of Defence as necessary for action in Iraq,'' Britain's finance minister told parliament. This is the second time Brown has been forced to increase the money set aside for the war. He had earmarked £1 billion in November but that was increased to £1.75 billion last month. Britain's current defence budget stands at about £26 billion, while the government has plans to spend £420 billion on various departments this year. But the increase in the war budget comes as tax revenue declines due to a slowing economy. At the same time, Prime Minister Tony Blair has plans to increase spending on the health service. Economists perdict that the cost of war could rise further. Brown will produce his annual budget on April 9. U.S. President George W. Bush asked lawmakers on Monday for about $75 billion to pay for the war. That figure was calculated to cover 30 days of combat, and does not include any money for Iraq's reconstruction. Bush plans to use $63 billion for the war itself, $4.2 billion for homeland security and $8 billion for international and humanitarian aid. Brown also gave the Department of International Development an extra £120 million for emergency aid work in Iraq. During the 1990-91 Gulf War Britain spent £2.5 billion on its war effort but the cost of the war was recouped from the international community, including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Germany and Japan. This time around there will be no financial support.
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