The White House of the US plans to increase its war funding request for 2008 by US$50 billion, with about a quarter of the additional money going toward armored trucks built to withstand roadside bombs, the New York Times reported on Sunday.

The increase would bring the amount the Bush administration is seeking to finance the war effort through 2008 to almost US$200 billion, making next year the most expensive year of the Iraq war, according to the report.

Much of that money will go to refurbishment of military equipment and to the purchase of new protective equipment for troops, Pentagon officials said, indicating the toll that years of combat in Iraq and Afghanistan have taken on military vehicles, aircraft, weapons and other items.

The US$50 billion will be top of the US$141 billion the Bush administration requested for supporting war efforts in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere in the fiscal year 2008 that begins October 1.

The new request will be presented by Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates during a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing next Wednesday.

About a quarter of the new money would go to build additional mine-resistant, ambush-protected vehicles, or MRAPs, Pentagon officials said.

The vehicles, which cost around several million dollars each, have a raised chassis and V-shaped underside that deflects explosions better than the flat underbelly on Humvees, which are used by most combat units in Iraq and Afghanistan.

(Xinhua News Agency September 24, 2007)