WASHINGTON, March 17: US President George W. Bush on Saturday threatened to veto emergency money for Iraq and Afghanistan if it includes measures aimed at forcing a US withdrawal or unrelated domestic spending.

“Congress needs to approve emergency funding for our troops, without strings and without delay. If they send me a bill that does otherwise, I will veto it,” Bush said in his weekly radio address.

At issue is next week’s debate in the House of Representatives over a $124-billion spending measure that includes a Democratic measure aimed at forcing a US withdrawal from Iraq by September 2008.

The US president warned that such an outcome would be “disastrous” and “a nightmare for our country” and said it “would undermine” the ongoing effort to quell sectarian violence in Baghdad.

Bush said the hotly contested bill would give lawmakers who say they support US troops in Iraq “a chance to show that support in deed, as well as in word” as he railed against domestic spending provisions tacked on to the war funding.

“For example, the House bill would provide $74 million for peanut storage, $48 million for the Farm Service Agency, and $35 million for NASA. These programmes do not belong in an emergency war spending bill,” he said.

“Congress must not allow debate on domestic spending to delay funds for our troops on the front lines.

And members should not use funding our troops as leverage to pass special interest spending for their districts,” warned Bush.—AFP