The White House has confirmed it plans to ask Congress for an extra $80bn (£43bn), mainly to fund military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Most of the money will go to the army to pay for salaries and to fund the replacement or repair of equipment. Congress has already approved $25bn in emergency funds for this tax year. In a related development, a top US general has said the US army expects to keep about 120,000 troops in Iraq for at least two more years. The number of US troops in Iraq rose to 150,000 last month in an effort to bolster security ahead of Iraq\'s election on Sunday. The new money being sought would push war spending to almost $300bn since the 11 September 2001 attacks. That is in addition to the Pentagon\'s annual budget, which already totals more than $400bn. Some of the $80bn will go to help pay for the training and equipping of Iraqi and Afghan forces and the construction of a new US embassy in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, estimated to cost $1.5bn. Significant sums are likely to be allocated to help the new Palestinian and Ukrainian governments. A senior administration official said the request \"may be slightly above\" $80bn. On top of that, the package that Mr Bush will eventually put to Congress is also expected to include money for Asian nations hit by last month\'s tsunami. In previous years, $120bn has been made available for Iraq and $60bn for Afghanistan. The White House had not been expected to reveal details of spending request until after the release of the federal budget on 7 February. But it decided to do so after congressional officials argued that withholding the costs from the budget would leave the administration open to criticism. The US is running a budget deficit of close to $500bn a year. (BBC)