The Boeing Co. was the second largest with 17.1 billion dollars in contracts, followed by Northrop Grumman Corp. (11.9 billion dollars), General Dynamics Corp (9.6 billion dollars), Raytheon Co. (8.5 billion dollars), according to the annual list compiled by the US government.

Halliburton Co., the Houston-based oil services giant whose Iraq contracts made it a center of controversy last year, was sixth on the list with 8 billion dollars in contracts.

Other companies that the top ten were United Technologies Corp.billion dollars), Science Applications International Corp. (2.5 billion dollars), Computer Sciences Corp. 2.4 billion dollars, and Humana Inc.billion dollars).

The Defense Department awarded 230.7 billion dollars in contracts in fiscal 2004, a 21.7 billion dollar increase over the previous year.

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.