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Britain's military will get an extra 520 million pounds (753 million euros, one billion dollars) to fund its operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown said Wednesday. The additional funds, announced in parliament, brings the expenditures for Britain's role in the two countries to nearly five billion pounds, of which 4.4 billion pounds have already been spent. Overall, Brown added, the Ministry of Defence budget would rise from 29.7 billion pounds this year to 33.4 billion pounds in the 2007-2008 fiscal year. "I can tell the House (of Commons) today that I am setting aside in the special reserve a further 520 million pounds for this year, raising the provision overall to almost five billion pounds," he said. Britain joined the United States in launching the March 2003 war in Iraq, and currently maintains 8,500 troops in the country. It also has 860 soldiers participating in all its Afghanistan operations, which include the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) deployed around the capital Kabul as well as provincial reconstruction teams. All rights reserved. © 2005 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.
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