US President Barack Obama has formally asked lawmakers for another US$83.4 billion to pay for the immediate needs of his revamped strategy for Afghanistan and for the war in Iraq.

In a letter to his top Democratic ally in the House of Representatives, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Obama pleaded Thursday for swift passage of the emergency spending measure, citing the worsening situation in Afghanistan.

barrack obama and budget for iraq and afghanistan 100409 02 "We face a security situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan that demands urgent attention. The Taliban is resurgent and Al-Qaeda threatens America from its safe haven along the Afghan-Pakistan border," he said.

"With that reality as my focus, today I send to the Congress a supplemental appropriations request totaling US$83.4 billion dollars that will fund our ongoing military, diplomatic, and intelligence operations," said the president.

The package includes items not related to the two conflicts, including US$350 million for security and counter-narcotics work along the US-Mexico border and US$89.5 million for efforts to secure Russian nuclear materials and pursue disablement and dismantlement of North Korea's nuclear work.

But "nearly 95 percent of these funds will be used to support our men and women in uniform as they help the people of Iraq to take responsibility for their own future - and work to disrupt, dismantle, and defeat Al-Qaeda in Pakistan and Afghanistan," Obama said.

The president's Republican foes were expected to join his Democratic allies in approving the request, despite growing unease among some on his party's left flank about the escalation in Afghanistan and the pace and scope of the military draw-down from Iraq.

US$400 mil to help Pakistan

The request includes US$75.85 billion for military and intelligence operations in the two wars, and another US$7.1 billion for international aid - including US$400 million to help Pakistan battle Islamist extremists.

It also includes US$800 million to support the Palestinian Authority and provide humanitarian aid to Gaza, and US$200 million in aid to Georgia.

barrack obama and budget for iraq and afghanistan 100409 01 Another US$800 million would go to UN peacekeeping operations, fund an expanded mission in Democratic Republic of Congo, and pay for a new mission in Chad and the Central African Republic.

Obama had firmly opposed using supplementals to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and grouped them in his regular budget for fiscal year 2010, which begins Oct 1, but the White House said the US military needs money now.

"We can't wait until the appropriations process is done in September or August or September to fund operations in Iraq and Afghanistan in June," said spokesman Robert Gibbs.

"The honest budgeting and appropriations process that the president has talked about falls somewhat victim to the fact that this is the way that wars have been funded previously," the spokesman said.

Failed insurance firms get more funds

But "this will be the last supplemental for Iraq and Afghanistan," he promised.

Both the Pakistani and Afghan envoys to Washington called on the United States and its allies to provide more cash and military tools to defeat extremists and alleviate poverty.

Pakistan's Husain Haqqani welcomed the new Obama strategy, but contrasted the amount with the multi-billion-dollar bailouts extended to US companies in distress.

"The resources that are being committed may look big to some but very frankly, I think that a company on the verge of failure is quite clearly able to get a bigger bailout than a nation that is accused of failure," he said.

"Why does Afghanistan or Pakistan get less resources allocated to solving a bigger problem (extremism) ... than say for example some failed insurance company or some car company whose real achievement is that they couldn't make cars that they could sell?"