Barack Obama wants extra £33 billion for Afghan war

Barack Obama will ask Congress for an extra $33 billion to fight in Afghanistan and Iraq, on top of record defence spending of $708 billion for next year.

Mr Obama will also tell Congress he intends to pull out of Iraq and Afghanistan within four years while preventing new wars, and that focus will be on counter-insurgency and counter-terrorism.

The $33 billion would mostly go towards fighting this year in Afghanistan, where the President ordered an extra 30,000 troops late last year. Among spending priorities are the pilotless drone aircraft used for surveillance and attack missions in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

This year's budget contains about $128 billion for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. That figure would rise to $159 billion next year under the proposals prepared for Congress.

The request for more war spending is likely to receive support in Congress from Republicans and moderate Democrats, but is also likely to expose a widening rift between Mr Obama's administration and Democratic leaders, who have watched public opinion turn against the military campaigns.

"The President's going to have to make his case," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, said last month.

Mr Obama has promised that American forces will begin to withdraw from Afghanistan in July 2011, but his defense advisers have set no time limit for the war.

The administration's Quadrennial Defense Review, the main paper on American military policy, is due before Congress on 1 February, spelling out key missions and goals for the Pentagon over the next four years.