Brown ups war chest to £3bn

Chancellor Gordon Brown today boosted Britain's war budget by another £1.25 billion - sending the total funding for the Iraqi conflict to £3billion.

MPs were told of the increase in a special announcement two weeks before the Budget.

Last year Mr Brown put £1billion in the war budget, using money from the Treasury's contingency reserve. This was boosted to £1.75billion last month.

Today the Chancellor said the new increase was needed as fighting had started and the Treasury now had a "better indication" of the total amount of cash which was needed.

The increase was evidence that both London and Washington now think the conflict will last longer than expected - though neither will say this publicly.

In theory Mr Brown could increase the total yet again in his Budget on 9 April - but Treasury sources hinted this would be very unlikely.

Mr Brown also announced today that another £120 million would be made available to Clare Short's international development department for Iraq relief programmes.

The total amount of money Britain is now committing to the conflict is closer to the level that independent experts forecast would need to be spent. Last month Professor Keith Hartley of York University, an expert in war financing, put the likely total at £3.5 billion, but said this did not include expensive peacekeeping duties.

The total cost to Britain of the 1991 Gulf War was £2.9billion, but Japan, Germany and Saudi Arabia helped foot the bill. This time, the UK must pay its own way.

The US military has calculated that it costs £47,000 to maintain a combat soldier in operations for a month. And the US Navy spends £1 million every time a cruise missile is fired from one of its ships.

In the US, President Bush has asked Congress for £48billion to pay for the war and to reward key allies supporting the war effort.

He is counting on the Republicanled Congress to take swift action on the spending package, which includes £35 billion for the Pentagon for the military build-up and combat operations in Iraq.

It also includes £350 million in humanitarian aid and £1.2billion to rebuild Iraq, based on the war lasting 30 days. If it lasts longer, more funds will be needed.