WASHINGTON, March 16 (Xinhuanet) -- The US House of Representatives approved 81.4 billion dollars in emergency spending on Wednesday to support the US military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, pushing the total price tag to past 100 billion dollars for fiscal year 2005 alone.

    The House voted by 388-43 to provide 76.8 billion dollars for defense expenses, 1.8 billion more than the amount President George W. Bush has requested. Most of the money will be used to buy weapons, body armor and pay for increased death benefit for survivors of troops killed on duty.

    But the bill slashed 400 million dollars from what Bush had asked for to reward war allies and 570 million for reconstruction projects in Afghanistan.

    In another apparent setback for the White House, the bill included a measure barring the State Department from building an embassy in Baghdad, which would cost nearly 600 million dollars.

    "The reason for this supplemental is to provide as quickly as possible money flows in support of our troops," Representative Jerry Lewis, Republic from California, the chairman of the Appropriations Committee, said.

    The bill left intact 656 million dollars in relief and reconstruction assistance for Asian countries recovering from the December tsunami, and provided an extra 100 million dollars for disaster and refugee assistance in Africa.

    The package will push the total cost for conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq so far to nearly 300 billion dollars. The Congress had approved 25 billion dollars in supplement spending inDecember for 2005.

    The 81.4-billion-dollar funding was not included in the 2.57-trillion-dollar budget plan for fiscal year of 2006 the White House sent to Congress last month. That budget includes 419.3 billion dollars for the Defense Department for fiscal 2006, representing a 4.8 percent increase over fiscal 2005.

    The Senate will vote on the bill in April. Enditem