Obama Sees War Costs Totaling $140 Bln This Year

Annual costs for the war will drop sharply after that, to $50 billion annually beginning in 2011, the budget will show.

President Barack Obama expects that the cost to the United States of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars will total just over $140 billion this year, according to a senior administration official.

The costs for the two wars will decline to $130 billion in the 2010 fiscal year that begins Oct. 1, said the official, who briefed reporters on Obama's budget, which is due to be released on Thursday.

Annual costs for the war will drop sharply after that, to $50 billion annually beginning in 2011, the budget will show.

Congress has already appropriated about half of the money that the Obama administration says it will need for Iraq and Afghanistan this year.

But the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the administration will need to make a budget "supplemental" request to Congress for an additional $75 billion.

Obama, who inherited a more-than $1 trillion budget deficit from President George W. Bush, will set a goal in the budget of cutting that deficit in half by 2013.

The administration anticipates big savings in the budget over the next few years in a number of areas, including defense spending. Obama aides say the drawdown of troops from the Iraq war will help yield significant budget savings.

Some private analysts are skeptical the reduction of troops from Iraq will bring big savings in the near term. They note that the drawdown from Iraq comes as the administration is boosting troop levels in Afghanistan.

Troop withdrawals also can be costly initially because it costs money to move personnel and equipment out of a war zone.

The administration official said those costs were included in the budget.