February 27, 2003	Thursday	Zul Hijjah 25, 1423

WASHINGTON: The Pentagon is telling the White House and Congress that defeating Iraq and occupying the country for six months could cost as much as $85 billion, according to sources — considerably more than what senior administration officials have said in public.

Combined with aid for regional allies such as Turkey, the price tag for the conflict could top the $100 billion mark, twice the war costs cited last month by Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and an amount the White House dismissed as outlandish last fall.

And the tally could rise still further. Indeed, some close to the process say war planners have no firm grip on the conflict’s final costs, a fact that is causing consternation among administration policy-makers as the nation edges closer to war.

“It’s like watching numbers roll higher and higher on a slot machine,” said one State Department official.

This official said that during recent interagency meetings, White House budget aides “put their hands over their ears and said, ‘We’re not listening.’

“ ‘We can’t take any more requests. Get a grip on this process and figure out exactly what you’re planning,’ “ the official remembered the aides as saying. “They basically said ‘Get a hold of yourselves.’ “

A spokesman for the Office of Management and Budget refused to comment on that account on Tuesday and said the administration had yet to settle on the amount it would ask Congress to provide. President Bush’s budgets for both this fiscal year and next included no money for war with Iraq.

America’s last war with Iraq cost $61 billion. But in that case, US allies footed most of the bill. That almost certainly will not happen this time.—Dawn/The Los Angeles Times News Service.