Defence budget increased by £500m

Last updated at 16:36 20 February 2007


The Ministry of Defence's budget has been increased to meet the costs of operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, it was announced today.

The Defence budget has been boosted by more than £500 million as the Government announced its spring supplementary estimates.

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The Ministry's departmental expenditure limit has now been set at more than £34 billion.

Defence Secretary Des Browne said an extra £387 million was needed "to reflect the costs of peace keeping in Iraq, Afghanistan, the Balkans and the Global Prevention Pool".

The Global Conflict Prevention Pool is a Government fund used for conflict prevention and reduction.

The Defence budget has increased from £33,611,177,000 to £34,150,707,000.

The total projected costs for operations in 2006-7 now stand at £980 million for Iraq, £750 million for Afghanistan and £53 million in the Balkans.

A Ministry of Defence spokesman said the request for supplementary funds from the Treasury was to meet the ongoing costs of carrying out operations.

He said: "We don't request money for operations at the beginning of the financial year because of the nature of operations, which make it difficult to work out how much we are going to spend."

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