UK ups spending on military and counter-terrorism

LONDON, Dec 6 (Reuters) Britain will spend an extra 1.18 billion dollars on military operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere next year and 84 million pounds more on counter-terrorism, finance minister Gordon Brown said today.

Britain has 7,100 troops in Iraq and 5,600 in Afghanistan.

Britain is also high on the list of targets for Muslim extremists, recently said by the head of the country's domestic spy agency to be plotting at least 30 major terrorist attacks.

''I can confirm that for operations in Afghanistan, Iraq and other international obligations, the secretary of defence has been allocated an additional 600 million (pounds),'' Brown told parliament in a pre-budget report.

''I can also announce an additional 84 million directed to intelligence and counter terrorism.'' He said Britain's security budget had doubled since 2001, when planes struck U S targets on September 11, from 1 billion pounds then, to more than 2 billion pounds for the fiscal year 2007 to 2008.

Britain suffered its worst peacetime attack in July 2005 when four British Islamists blew themselves up on London's transport network, killing 52 commuters and wounding hundreds.

REUTERS LL BS1946