WASHINGTON, Jan. 2 (Xinhuanet) -- The Bush administration does not intend to seek any new funds for Iraq reconstruction in the budget request going before Congress in February, the Washington Post reported Monday.

    The report quoted officials as saying that the decision signaled the winding down of an 18.4 billion U.S. dollars rebuilding effort in which roughly half of the money was spent on fighting the insurgency, a buildup of Iraq's criminal justice system and the investigation and trial of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

    Only under 20 percent of the reconstruction package remained unallocated. When the last of the 18.4 billion dollars was spent, the report said, U.S. officials in Baghdad had made clear that other foreign donors and the fledgling Iraqi government would have to take up what authorities said was tens of billions of dollars of work yet to be done merely to bring reliable electricity, water and other services to Iraq's 26 million people.

    "The U.S. never intended to completely rebuild Iraq," Brig. Gen. William McCoy, the Army Corps of Engineers commander overseeing the work, was quoted as telling a recent news conference.

    Since the reconstruction effort began in 2003, midcourse changes by U.S. officials had shifted at least 2.5 billion dollars from the rebuilding of Iraq's decrepit electrical, education, water, sewage, sanitation and oil networks to build new security forces for Iraq and to construct a nationwide system of medium and maximum security prisons and detention centers that meet international standards, the report said, citing reconstruction officials and documents.

    While the Bush administration was not seeking any new reconstruction funds for Iraq, U.S. commanders in Iraq had military discretionary funds they could use for small reconstruction projects, the report said. Enditem