WASHINGTON: The US House of Representatives on Thursday struck twin blows to President George Bush by defeating a legislation that would have funded the war in Iraq and Afghanistan for another year and by passing a bill that would set the end of 2009 as the goal for withdrawing troops from the Middle East country.

By a vote of 149-141, the Democrat-controlled House rejected a measure that would have given the Pentagon $162.5 billion to keep the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan running through next summer, slightly below President George Bush’s request.

A large group of anti-war House Democrats voted against the funds. That, coupled with 132 Republicans voting “present,” meaning neither “yes” nor “no”, killed the measure for now.

But the Senate is expected to debate its version of a war-funding bill possibly next week and is likely to resurrect the money for the coming year.

And by a vote of 227-196, the House approved the measure that would start the pullout of US combat troops from Iraq within 30 days of enactment.

The legislation, likely to be blocked by Republicans in the Senate, has drawn a veto threat from the White House.—Reuters