BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Iraq's Cabinet on Tuesday approved a supplementary 2008 budget, bringing the total budget to $70 billion -- the highest in the country's history, a government spokesman said.
Workers operate an oil drilling facility in northern Iraq.
Iraqi ministers voted in favor of the $21 billion supplementary budget in their regular meeting, spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said.
The measure was approved after amendments and negotiations between Iraq's ministries and institutions, he said.
Officials have said 2008 will be a year for rebuilding and reconstruction in Iraq, where violence has dropped.
A report recently issued by the Pentagon said all major indicators of violence in Iraq have dropped by between 40 percent and 80 percent since February 2007, when President Bush committed an additional 30,000 troops to the war there.
Iraq hopes to capitalize on expanded production of six oil fields and two natural gas fields that it recently opened to international bidding. The contracts could go into effect next year and eventually could increase the nation's oil production by 1.5 million barrels per day.
Iraq's oil ministry continues to negotiate short-term, no-bid contracts with U.S. and European oil companies -- a step two American lawmakers recently criticized.
Sens. Charles Schumer, D-New York, and John Kerry, D-Massachusetts, sent a letter last month to U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice expressing their concern that unfair distribution of Iraq's oil revenue could inflame the violence between warring religious and political groups.
In their letter, the senators said Iraq's oil revenue during 2007 and 2008 will total $100 billion, "most of which will not be spent on reconstruction due to bureaucratic incompetence."
CNN's Mohammed Tawfeeq contributed to this report.
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