President George W. Bush asked Congress for 80 billion dollars in emergency funds in fiscal 2005 earlier Tuesday. All but five billion dollars would go to the Defense Department.

More than two thirds of the Defense Department's 75-billion-dollar share will cover the normal incremental costs of combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, the defense official said on condition he not be identified.

He said the request departed from past practice, however, by adding funding to the army's program to overhaul its division-based force structure and replace it with a more deployable, combat-ready force built around brigades.

The army has been stretched to the limit by the demand for troops in Iraq. It is banking on the reorganization to increase the number of army brigades from 33 to 44 without expanding the overall size of the army.

"What the supplemental allows for is for the army to fund the three new modular brigades," he said.

Noting that the reorganization has yielded three additional brigades so far for a total of 36, the official said, "This will push it in 2005 to 39."

"By having more of these brigade combat teams you're basically increasing your combat effectiveness," he said.

To put it off to 2006 budget, which the administration will be submitting to Congress next month, would prevent the army from forging ahead with the three additional brigades this year, he said.

The army's chief operations officer, Lieutenant General James Lovelace, told reporters Monday that the army anticipates that it will have to keep 120,000 troops in Iraq at least two years.

The requested funds would also train and equip Iraqi security forces, crucial to shifting more of the security burden to Iraqis.

Neither White House nor defense officials would provide a detailed breakdown moneys for each category.

"I would say that more than two thirds is in the category of ongoing combat operations, the basic funding of the war," he said.

That would include food, fuel, ammunition, spare parts and transportation.

It also includes the cost of armoring vehicles and the rising cost of maintaining and replacing or refurbishing tanks, armored fighting vehicles, Humvees and other equipment being used faster than expected, he said.

The 80 billion dollar request raises to 105 billion dollars in emergency funding sought in fiscal 2005. Pentagon officials estimate the monthly cost of the war in Iraq at about 4.5 billion dollars.

Representative Ellen Tauscher, a Democrat from California, noted that three previous emergency supplemental spending bills have totaled 180 billion dollars.

"The administration's policy of irresponsibly budgeting for the Iraq war as a temporary, incremental involvement demonstrates its lack of a comprehensive plan to stabilize the country, internationalize the ground forces, and begin to withdraw American forces," she said.

She said that after two years in Iraq, the cost of the war was largely known and did not require emergency treatment.

"Refusing to include these costs in the annual budget request allows the secretary to avoid cutting less relevant, unproven programs and passes the massive cost of the war to future generations," she said.

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