WASHINGTON, Feb 4: President George Bush on Monday sought the biggest increase in US military spending in a generation and coupled his budget proposals for the next fiscal year by repeating the ‘axis of evil’ phrase that he first invoked in his State of the Union message to the Congress last week.

In the budgetary request sent to the Congress, the Bush administration has sought a 14 per cent jump in defence spending, putting the total at $379 billion out of a total budget of $2.1 trillion.

Federal spending in other areas in this first US deficit budget in a decade is due to rise by just two per cent.

As the budget details were released by the White House, President Bush spoke at an air force base in Florida and, while avoiding mentioning Iran, Iraq and North Korea by name as he had in his speech last week, he nevertheless said nations acquiring weapons of mass destruction and sponsoring terrorism constituted an ‘axis of evil’. He said it was up to such nations to change their behaviour, but he was putting them on notice.

The United States, Mr Bush added, would not let the world’s most dangerous regimes to threaten the US with the world’s most destructive weapons.

Administration officials have been citing the need to continue the ‘battle against terrorism’ to justify increased spending on the military and development of new weapons, and Mr Bush again said Afghanistan was only the first step.

It was the beginning of a long campaign to rid the world of terrorism.

Apart from threats directed at Iran, Iraq and North Korea and reports about possible military action in Somalia, the US now has some 600 soldiers in the Philippines.

These are said to be helping to train the Philippine army to fight the Abu Sayyaf group.