September 9, 2003	Tuesday	Rajab 11, 1424

WASHINGTON, Sept 8: Just 800 million dollars of US President George Bush’s vast 87 billion dollar request to Congress for Iraq and Afghanistan will address critical Afghan reconstruction needs, according to White House figures issued on Monday.

But officials said the administration would reallocate nearly 400 million dollars from its existing budget to boost the promised Afghan aid package to 1.2 billion dollars in the next fiscal year.

That amount will be dwarfed by an 11 billion dollar slice of the pie devoted to the US military as it hunts for what Washington says are remnants of the Taliban and Al Qaeda sympathizers and operatives in Afghanistan.

Mr Bush had repeatedly vowed the United States would not desert Afghanistan over the nearly two years since US-led forces ousted the Taliban.

But officials admitted in recent months they wanted to accelerate US reconstruction efforts, in a bid to ensure that Afghan people enjoy the benefits of the United States-backed rule of President Hamid Karzai, before elections next June. —AFP