WASHINGTON, June 12 (Xinhuanet) -- The White House said on Sunday that the United States had "significant post-war planning" for Iraq before the March 2003 invasion and disputed characterization of a British memo prepared before the war that said the US military was not preparing adequately for the post-war occupation.

    "We disagree with the characterization. There was significant post-war planning," said David Almacy, a White House spokesman.

    "More importantly, the memo in question was written eight months before the war began. There was significant post-war planning in the time that elapsed," he said.

    Almacy was reacting to a report in The Washington Post Sunday that a briefing paper prepared for British Prime Minister Tony Blair eight months before the invasion of Iraq concluded that the US military was not preparing adequately for a "protracted and costly" post-war occupation of Iraq.

    The eight-page memo, written in July 2002, provided new insights into why senior British officials saw a Bush administration decision to go to war as inevitable and realized more clearly than their US counterparts the potential for the post-invasion instability that continues to plague Iraq, according to the Post report.

    The memo, "Iraq: Conditions for Military Action," said in its introduction that US military planning for action against Iraq "is proceeding apace," but that "little thought" was given to, among others things, "the aftermath and how to shape it," the report said. Enditem