Britain's war chest remains insufficient despite increase: expert

LONDON (AFP) Mar 28, 2003
Britain's budget for the war in Iraq remains too low despite Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown nearly doubling it this week to 3.0 billion pounds (4.7 billion dollars, 4.4 billion euros), a defence expert said Friday.

"If you took the figure of three billion (pounds), added on a bit for the extra time, extra costs for the stabilisation force and other unforeseen costs, five billion (pounds) as a round estimate is a robust figure that should not be exceeded," said Richard Cobbold, director of The Royal United Services Institute -- an independent authority on British and international defence and security issues.

Brown raised Britain's war budget by 1.25 billion pounds on Thursday -- just one week into the conflict against Iraq.

Britain has sent 45,000 soldiers, sailors and air personnel, 120 tanks, a naval task force and 100-plus warplanes to join the US-led war.

The cost of the deployment has placed extra strains on public finances at a time when the Labour government is pumping billions of pounds of extra money into Britain's ailing education and healthcare systems.

WAR.WIRE