WASHINGTON, Jan 25 (AFP) - US President George W. Bush, poised to seek 80 billion dollars more for Iraq and Afghanistan in 2005, discussed Iraq's elections with Prime Minister Iyad Allawi on Tuesday, the White House said.
Bush spokesman Scott McClellan declined to confirm or deny the precise amount of the spending request, but said the administration would provide details during a 1:00 pm (1800 GMT) briefing.
"The president has made it very clear that we're going to do everything we can to support our troops and make sure they have the resources they need to protect themselves and complete their mission," he said.
"And we're also going to do everything we can to support the Iraqi people as they move forward on building a democratic and peaceful future," said McClellan.
In their telephone conversation, Bush and Allawi focused on voting set for January 30 in Iraq, and "talked about how the elections will be a historic moment for the Iraqi people," said McClellan.
The spokesman also downplayed the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office's estimate that the US government deficit will be 368 billion dollars in the current fiscal year, excluding costs for Iraq and Afghanistan.
Bush has a plan to halve the deficit in five years and "we are on track to meet it," said McClellan, who reminded reporters that Bush was expected to unveil his budget on February 7.
McClellan's comments came as the Washington Post reported that the US Army expects to maintain its current level of 120,000 troops in Iraq for at least two more years, citing the army's top operations officer.
"We're making the assumption that the level of effort is going to continue," Lieutenant General James Lovelace was quoted as saying.
That suggested that the army was not counting on newly trained Iraqi security forces -- who Bush says will eventually replace US-led troops -- to enable a reduction in US force levels soon.
Lovelace said that the levels could increase or decrease depending on security conditions and other factors, but that the assumption amounted to "the most probable case."
He said the army planned to continue rotating active-duty units in and out of Iraq in year-long deployments and is looking for ways to dip even deeper into reserve forces, according to the Post.
The army accounts for the bulk of the 150,000 US troops now in Iraq, which have been beefed up in recent weeks amid intensifying violence ahead of the January 30 elections.

01/25/2005 16:23 GMT - AFP