"We don't think in terms of politics. We think in terms of how we manage the funds," Pentagon comptroller Dov Zakheim told a press conference.

He said the Pentagon was waiting until next year to request additional funding because it was too difficult to estimate what operations will cost after the return of sovereignty to Iraqis on June 30.

"I am more comfortable waiting and looking back," he said.

The chiefs of the army, air force and marine corps, however, voiced concerns in congressional testimony Tuesday over how they were going to finance operations in Iraq and Afghanistan after September.

Army Chief of Staff General Peter Schoomaker said he would run out of money by early September at the current rate of spending.

He said the army, the service most heavily deployed in the region, was spending an average of 3.7 billion dollars a month in Iraq and another 800 to 900 million dollars a month in Afghanistan.

"The chief of staff is rightly concerned that he get every dollar without having to worry about it," said Zakheim, who said he called the press conference to clear up the unusual public discrepancy between the Pentagon and its military chiefs.

"Our concern is: Will every dollar be available? So our perspective is somewhat different and we don't share that concern to the same degree at the same timeframe," he he said.

Zakheim said the Pentagon could borrow from other accounts that fund training and equipment maintenance through this year without major disruptions.

It would then request supplemental funding for Iraq and Afghanistan in January, he said.

"If we don't hear from Congress within a few months of that -- we are going to begin to get very, very nervous, and then I would be as nervous as the chief of staff was," he said.

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