US House approves Iraq war money with no withdrawal

WASHINGTON, May 25 (Reuters) The US House of Representatives broke a four-month deadlock with President George W Bush and approved 100 billion dollars in new funds for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan without a timetable for withdrawing combat troops.

By a vote of 280-142, the House passed the emergency funding bill, sending it to the Senate for expected approval.

The war funds were coupled with new domestic money for child health care, more reconstruction after 2005 hurricanes, and other programmes, pushing the overall price tag of the measure to 120 billion dollar. The bill also raises the US minimum wage for the first time in more than a decade.

''This is a token. This is a small step forward. Instead we should have a giant step forward into a new direction'' on the war, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, said shortly before she voted against the Iraq war funding provision.

Pelosi added that Democrats will promptly renew their efforts to pull US combat troops from Iraq in upcoming legislation.

On May 1, Bush vetoed legislation that would have forced the beginning of troop withdrawals by October. 1.

REUTERS DKS PM5000