BRUSSELS, June 9 (Xinhuanet) -- A report issued by the headquarters of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) on Thursday said the defense expenditure of the United States hits 462.099 billion US dollars in 2004.

    The figure far exceeds the estimated figure released on Tuesday by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, which said the US defense expenditure stood at 455 billion US dollars, accounting for 47 percent of the world' total.

    The tables released by the NATO headquarters include the defense expenditure of all 26 NATO member states and Russia.

    In 2004, the total defense expenditure of all 26 NATO member states hit around 709 billion US dollars, while that of the U.S. accounted for 65 percent, according to the tables.

    The defense expenditure of all the other 25 member states except the U.S. totaled 246.975 billion US dollars, merely about half of that of the U.S..

    The tables said defense expenditure per capita stood at 1,256 US dollars in the U.S. in 2004, making it Number One within the alliance.

    Compared to the defense expenditure of 415.223 billion US dollars in 2003, the US defense expenditure increased by 8.6 percent in 2004.

    For other big players within NATO, France spent 51.877 billion US dollars; Britain, 48.918 billion US dollars; Germany, 37.930 billion US dollars and Italy 30.642 billion US dollars, ranking the second, third, fourth and fifth respectively.

    However, Russia's defense expenditure was merely 16.73 billion US dollars in 2004, around half of Italy's.

    According to the NATO calculation rules, apart from regular items, military assistance, expenditures for defense research and development and pensions paid to retirees are all included in defense expenditure. Enditem