The 308-114 vote in the House of Representatives set the stage for Obama to sign the legislation, which provides some 37 billion dollars to fund the conflict in Iraq and pay for his "surge" of 33,000 more troops to Afghanistan.

More than 100 Democrats voted against the measure, however, which also provides funds for disaster relief in Haiti.

The House also beat back a blunt challenge to Obama's war strategy, defeating a resolution calling for the removal of US forces from Pakistan by a crushing 38-372 margin.

The margins called into question what impact the stunning disclosure of some 92,000 previously secret Pentagon documents on the war by the whistleblowing website WikiLeaks would have on the US debate on the conflict.

But lawmakers -- who face a war-weary public in November mid-term elections -- argued passionately about the nearly nine-year-old conflict and Obama's plan to right the faltering campaign in time to start a draw-down by July 2011.

"Wake Up America. WikiLeaks' release of secret war documents gave us 92,000 reasons to end the wars. Pick one," Democratic Representative Dennis Kucinich, author of the Pakistan measure, said as debate began.

Representative Buck McKeon, the top Republican on the House Armed Services Committee, invoked US forces on the frontlines and declared that "cutting off their funding in the middle of that fight is tantamount to abandonment."

But Democratic Representative Dave Obey, chairman of the powerful appropriations committee, said he was "reluctantly" voting no out of doubts "that this operation will hurt our enemies more than us."

"The Afghan government has not demonstrated the focused determination, reliability and judgment necessary to bring this effort to a rational and successful conclusion," said Obey.

As the US Army opened a criminal investigation into the WikiLeaks disclosures, Obama said the documents showed he was right to craft a new Afghan war-fighting approach and vowed to stick with it.

"We have to see that strategy through," said the president, who declared leaked documents "don't reveal any issues that haven't already informed our public debate on Afghanistan."

The disclosures so far have shed new light on a difficult five-year span of the war, ending in December 2009 when Obama unveiled his new stratey, but appeared short on blockbuster revelations.

Foes of the war were drawing strength from the leaks by the whistleblower's website, which seemed to buttress criticisms of what Kucinich dubbed "corrupt" governments in Kabul and Islamabad and a sometimes unfocused US approach.

Kucinich and Republican Representative Ron Paul had seized the chance to introduce a so-called "War Powers" resolution, named after a Vietnam-era law aimed at boosting congressional control over overseas military deployments, to force Obama to pull forces out of Pakistan.

In Kabul meanwhile, the Afghan government said the leaked documents showed Pakistan helped insurgents who target Afghans and that the country's Western allies had an incoherent approach to the insurgency.

The Obama administration and its allies in the US Congress -- many of whom have expressed grave doubts about the conflict -- sought to play down the impact of the leak and denied any shift in policy on Pakistan.

Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman John Kerry said it was important not to "overhype" raw intelligence field reports, some of them "completely dismissable," others "unreliable."

Admiral Mike Mullen, the US military's top officer, denied the leaks raised questions over US relations with Pakistan, where US forces are hunting for top Al-Qaeda leaders along its shared border with Afghanistan.

Mullen told reporters that US-Pakistan ties had "dramatically" improved in the past year, but warned "any links which exist with terrorist organizations" and Pakistan intelligence services are "just completely unacceptable."

related report
WikiLeaks document release endangers Afghan lives: US
Informants whose names appear in the documents posted on the whistleblower site WikiLeaks have reason to fear for their lives, a Pentagon spokesman said Wednesday.

At least one person who named appeared in the documents has already complained to US officials in Afghanistan, said Colonel David Lapan.

"Anyone whose name appears in those documents is potentially at risk," he said.

"It could compromise their position, it could be a threat on their life, and it could have an impact on their future conduct," Lapan said, referring to fears the massive leak could dry up intelligence sources.

The more than 90,000 classified military files span a period from 2004 to 2009 as the US and NATO war effort in Afghanistan ran into a rising Taliban insurgency.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said earlier this week that the documents were checked for named informants and that 15,000 such documents had been held back.

But the British newspaper The Times reported that after just two hours of combing through the documents it was able to find the names of dozens of Afghans said to have provided detailed intelligence to US forces.

The Times cited one 2008 document that included a detailed interview with a Taliban fighter considering defection.

The man, who names local Taliban commanders and talks about other potential defectors, is identified by name, along with his father's name and village.

In another case from 2007, a senior official accuses named figures in the Afghan government of corruption.

"The leaks certainly have put in real risk and danger the lives and integrity of many Afghans," a senior official at the Afghan foreign ministry, who declined to be named told The Times.

"The US is both morally and legally responsible for any harm that the leaks might cause to the individuals, particularly those who have been named. It will further limit the US/international access to the uncensored views of Afghans," the Afghan official told the newspaper.

Major General John Campbell, head of the 101 Airborne Division and in charge of a key regional command in eastern Afghanistan, said that the leaks have not resulted in any changes in military operations.

Campbell, speaking to reporters via satellite from Afghanistan, said that most of the information he has seen from the leaks was "not new news."

However, he feared that any named informants would be reluctant to further collaborate with coalition forces.

"I can see that there will be a detriment down the road," said Campbell.

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