The budget request came in three pieces -- 481.4 billion dollars for the Pentagon's 2008 base budget; 141.7 billion dollars for the "global war on terrorism" in 2008; and 93.4 billion dollars to cover additional war costs in the current fiscal year to September 30.

The huge spending package comes amid spiking demands for US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, which military leaders have warned are putting at risk the Pentagon's ability to meet challenges elsewhere in the world.

"The resources we devote to defense should be at the level to adequately meet the challenges of the global strategic environment the United States faces today," said Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

But Representative Ike Skelton, chairman of the House Armed Services, said the sums involved were "staggering."

"We cannot provide an adequate national defense on the cheap, but neither can we afford to simply ratify the president's request without performing the due diligence and oversight our constitution requires," he said.

It marked the first time the administration has sent Congress inclusive war-related budget requests, instead of the piecemeal emergency funding requests it has used previously to fund operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Defense Department comptroller Tina Jonas said the Pentagon's estimated war costs for 2008 were lower at 141.7 billion dollars than this year's total because it assumed that a surge in US forces now underway will be temporary.

"It is based on an assumption of 140,000 troops in Iraq and 20,000 in Afghanistan, which is our baseline prior to these policy changes that were made on the surge," she said.

The US force in Iraq is supposed to go up by at least 21,500 troops in the coming months at an estimated cost of 5.6 billion dollars.

Billions of dollars also have been earmarked for repairing and replacing spent equipment, training and equiping Iraqi and Afghan security forces, developing counter-measures for roadside bombs, military intelligence.

The administration, meanwhile, is requesting a 11.3 percent boost in its base defense budget for 2008 over this year.

It includes a major expansion in the size of the Army and Marine Corps that is projected to add 92,000 troops by 2012 and will cost 12.1 billion dollars next year.

The Army's budget would swell to 130.1 billion dollars, up 20.4 billion dollars, surpassed in size only by the Air Force. The Marine Corps budget would grow by more than 25 percent to 20.5 billion dollars, a 4.3 billion dollar increase over this year.

Rather than compensate with cuts in other areas, the administration's request also adds billion of dollars to the budgets of the Air Force and Navy, services that have played secondary roles in the Iraq and Afghan conflicts.

The Air Force and Navy would play lead roles in countering other potential adversaries -- nuclear-armed North Korea, Iran and China, whose rapid military modernization has prompted US worries about its intentions.

"Recognizing that threats to US security exist beyond the war on terror in Iraq and Afghanistan, the United States must increase the strength and capabilities of its forces, maintain a high state of readiness and support, and continue strategic modernization," the Pentagon said.

The proposal would boost procurement spending by more than 20 billion dollars to buy fighter aircraft, electronic warfare planes, unmanned aircraft, an aircraft carrier, destroyers, and littoral combat ships.

Overall procurement spending for 2008 would total 107.8 billlion dollars, according to Pentagon projections.

It would provide 14.4 billion dollars for shipbuilding, up 3.2 billion dollars; 27 billion dollars for aircraft, up 4.1 billion dollars; and 3.7 billion dollars for the army's next generation of networked ground combat vehicles.

The proposed operations and maintenance budget would go up by 15.5 billion dollars to 164.7 billion dollars, much of it for training land forces, air crews and to keep US warships at sea longer.

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