Bush administration seeks to boost defence spending to $400bn

THE Bush administration will ask Congress to boost spending on missile defence by $1.2 billion next year and nearly double funding to modernise the army in the $401.7bn US military budget for 2005, according to Pentagon documents released yesterday.

The defence plan is part of a proposed $2.3 trillion federal budget President Bush will send to lawmakers on Monday. It includes a 7% increase in defence spending over the current level of $375bn.

The Pentagon said the defence budget documents scheduled to be formally released on Monday with the president's overall budget were inadvertently posted on the internet yesterday morning. They were later removed.