MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Bush to request 75 billion for the war

President George Bush will be requesting the US Congress an additional 75 billion US dollars to face war costs and reinforce counter terrorism measures. The official announcement is expected Tuesday after a meeting of the President with Congress leaders and the National Economic Council.

The supplementary budget the White House is requesting includes 62 billion US dollars for Defence and the rest for the Internal Security Department.

Reliable Congressional sources indicated the plan is based on the presumption the Iraq conflict will be over in thirty days.

However this Monday the Dow-Jones index dropped 3,61% and the Nasdaq 3,66% following fears in Wall Street that the war might extend far longer than predicted given the fierce and unexpected resistance encountered by the coalition troops in different cities of Iraq.

The Dow Jones closed at 8.214,68 points, a 307,29 points drop from last week and the lowest since last September 27. Nasdaq fell 31,56 points reaching 1,369,78. Earlier the FTSE 100 index of leading United Kingdom shares closed down 3,1% at 3,743.

As the Dow Jones stumbled so did the US dollar, an indicator of market confidence in the US economy. The US dollar fell more than 1% against the Euro to $ 1,0643.

Similarly in the oil market fears of a prolonged and more complicated war made oil prices in New York (light sweet crude for delivery in May) rise 1,75 US dollars (6,5%) to 28,66 US dollars the barrel, after having dropped last Friday 1,25 US dollars.

The oil market was also reacting to news from Nigeria where ethnic warfare has forced a reduction of over 30% in the country's output.