WASHINGTON: The US army has sought an additional six billion dollars for the Iraq operation on top of the 87 billion dollars that Congress allocated for this year, newspapers said on Wednesday.

A Washington Post report pointed out that intense fighting in Iraq had not only killed 100 US soldiers but it was also 'chewing up military hardware.'

"It is depleting military coffers, straining defence contractors and putting pressure on the Bush administration at an unexpectedly rapid rate," the report said.

Other reports said President Bush's budget request for the fiscal year to begins on October 1 included no money for Iraqi operations, and his budget director, Joshua B. Bolten, said no request would come until January at the earliest.

But military officials, defence contractors and members of Congress say that the fighting in Iraq has dramatically changed the situation, causing demands for more money. The US military had already identified unmet funding needs, including initiatives aimed at providing equipment and weapons for troops in Iraq.

The army has publicly identified nearly six billion dollars in funding requests that were not included in President Bush's billion dollars total defence budget for 2005, the reports said.

The new requests include $132 million for vehicle armour; $879 million for combat helmets, silk-weight underwear, boots and other clothing; $21.5 million for M249 squad automatic weapons; and $27 million for ammunition magazines, night sights and ammo packs.

The army has also asked for $956 million for repairing desert-damaged equipment and $102 million to replace equipment lost in combat. The Marine Corps' additional budget requests include $40 million for body armour, lightweight helmets and other equipment for "Marines engaged in the global war on terrorism," Marine Corps documents state.

Pressed on the funding issue at a Senate hearing on Tuesday, Deputy Defence Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz conceded that higher-than-expected troop levels are draining some military accounts, but he said other accounts remain in surplus and can be tapped.