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Obama seeks 83.4 billion dollars for Iraq, Afghan missions

Other News Materials 10 April 2009 10:27 (UTC +04:00)

US President Barack Obama on Thursday asked Congress to authorize 83.4 billion dollars in additional funding for the military missions in Iraq and Afghanistan, dpa reported.

In a letter to Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the House of Representatives, he said that nearly 95 per cent of the military request for the current fiscal year, which ends September 30, would go toward military operations in either Iraq or the conflict in Afghanistan, which has increasingly spilled into neighbouring Pakistan.

"We face a security situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan that demands urgent attention," Obama said. "The Taliban is resurgent and al-Qaeda threatens America from its safe haven along the Afghan- Pakistan border."

The money is to cover military but also diplomatic and intelligence operations in the two major conflicts. A small portion of the money would also go toward related policy goals, such as securing nuclear weapons in other countries.

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