WASHINGTON, Feb 4: US President George W. Bush proposed on Monday a record 3.1-trillion-dollar budget for fiscal 2009 that widens the government deficit with an economic stimulus and expenditures for the war in Iraq.

Bush’s spending plan, sent to Congress for the fiscal year starting October 1, forecasts heavy deficits for the government -- 410 billion dollars for the current year and 407 billion for the coming fiscal year.

The budget, an outline of spending plans that must be approved by Congress, is the first to exceed three trillion dollars.

Bush proposed 515.4 billion dollars in defence spending for the upcoming year, up from 479.5 billion in fiscal 2008.

The plan includes an additional 70 billion dollars dedicated for the “global war on terror.” mainly for ongoing fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Bush also budgeted over the current and upcoming year 145 billion dollars for the economic growth package the White House and Congress are working to pass to help revive flagging economic growth.

The document includes a five-year budget outline that would temporarily increase the deficit for 2008 and 2009 before paring it in subsequent years.

“The president’s 2009 budget proposes to boost near-term economic growth, restrain spending, and reform entitlements, leading to a balanced budget by 2012 and a more fiscally prudent path for the long term,” Bush said in his budget message.

The deficit, which had fallen to 1.2 per cent of US economic output or gross domestic product (GDP), would jump to 2.9 per cent of the GDP in 2008 and ease to 2.7 per cent in 2009.

Democratic Representative John Spratt, head of the House of Representatives Budget Committee, said the latest budget highlights mismanagement of economic affairs by the Bush adminstration.

“Today’s budget bears all the hallmarks of the Bush legacy -- it leads to more deficits, more debt, more tax cuts, more cutbacks in critical services,” Spratt said in a statement.—AFP