WASHINGTON, July 29 (Xinhuanet) -- US reconstruction efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan were seriously hampered due to persisting violence and corruption, according to latest reports on reconstruction financing.

    In a report issued Thursday, the Government Accountability Office (GAO), a congressional auditory body, said the violent situation in the two countries has forced the United States to divert a large chunk of reconstruction money from infrastructure rebuilding to urgent security needs.

    Since July 2004, some 4.7 billion US dollars of the 18.4 billion dollars in emergency fund which the US Congress provided for reconstruction efforts in Iraq, have been shifted from large utilities to security and other urgent needs, it said.

    As a result, as of May, Iraq's oil and electricity output remained below the levels before the US invasion.

    Frequent attacks from anti-American militants have crippled transportation of raw materials to construction sites and local workers refrained from showing up because of fear.

    On the average, 22 percent to 36 percent of the budget of a reconstruction project have to be used to enhance security.

    In another report, the GAO found a number of US reconstruction goals cannot be met in Afghanistan, also due to security concerns.

    For instance, the United States had aimed to rebuild 286 schools and 253 clinics for Afghanistan during the last fiscal year which ends on Sept. 30, 2004, but construction has been completed only in 8 schools and 15 clinics so far, according to the agency.

    If security problems and bureaucratic delays are to be blamed, then corruption in reconstruction projects involving US officials and contractors will be another big issue.

    Stuart Bowen, US special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, was quoted by the National Public Radio as saying Thursday that millions of dollars of reconstruction money has beenmissing in Iraq.

    For example, 7 million dollars intended for works such as a police station and a library in the troubled Hilla region south of Baghdad has disappeared.

    "There was no accountability, no records," he said, suggesting there must be frauds in this case.

    Bowen said the US Justice Department has launched a criminal investigation into these frauds.

    The United States has promised 23 billion dollars of the 60 billion dollars that is needed to rebuild Iraq as estimated by the World Bank and US officials said 9 billion dollars have been spent.Enditem