Dov Zakheim, the Defense Department's comptroller, said in an Associated Press interview the estimated cost so far includes the combat phase, which started March 20, postwar stabilization efforts and US$30 billion in prewar expenses such as moving troops to the region and building facilities there.

Although officials have receipts and actual costs only through April, they believe the cost of the military's part of the campaign beginning in January is averaging US$3.9 billion a month.

The cost was some US$350,000 for January, peaked at over US$5 billion during the heavy combat phase and has fallen back below US$4 billion a month now that some troops have been sent home and major combat is ended, officials said.

Some 2 1/2 months into stabilization efforts, Zakheim said he cannot yet estimate reconstruction costs for next year because the size of the future US military presence needed there remains unclear. The picture will be clearer once international troops arrive to help with peacekeeping, he said.

"By the end of September, we will see additional forces, ... will see the state of the country," he said. "Then we'll be in a better position to estimate."

Gen. Tommy Franks said last week that US forces in the area will stay about the same size for the "foreseeable future."

In April, Congress approved an extra US$62.6 billion for the Pentagon, which already had a budget of US$364 billion for the current fiscal year. The new money was for the war in Iraq and the global war on terror.

Zakheim said he expects all but US$4 billion of that will be needed this fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30.

The estimated monthly average of US$3.9 billion includes US$1.1 billion in salaries for reservists called to active duty; US$2.6 billion for such requirements as logistics and transportation; and US$200 million for food, health costs and other support.

Over the nine months, that US$3.9 billion average comes out to US$35 billion. It doesn't include replacement of damaged equipment and replenishing munitions and other materiel consumed in the war. Those expenses amount to a further US$23 billion, for the total US$58 billion expected by year's end, Pentagon calculations show.

It also doesn't include salaries of active duty soldiers, sailors and airmen, who would be paid with or without war.

None of the figures include what has been spent on several hundred American civilians working since the end of the war as part of the occupation authority. They are from the State Department, Treasury, FBI and other agencies, which pay their salaries.

(China Daily July 16, 2003)