WASHINGTON, Feb. 16 (Xinhuanet) -- The White House asked the Congress on Thursday for 72.4 billion U.S. dollars in additional funding for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan this year, and 19.8 billion dollars in extra funding for Hurricane Katrina relief.

    With the new money, the cost of the U.S. military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan would rise to 120 billion dollars for this year, and would bring the total war-related costs to date to nearly 400 billion dollars since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

    The Congress already approved in December last year 50 billion dollars to cover this year's war costs.

    Of the 19.8 billion dollars requested for hurricane rebuilding, 9.4 billion dollars were for continuing disaster relief, 1.3 billion dollars for disaster loans, and 1.5 billion dollars for levee repair and flood control projects.

    The Congress has previously approved over 87 billion dollars for the reconstruction effort after Katrina hit the U.S. Gulf Coast on Aug. 29 last year that killed more than 1,300 people and left about 1 million others displaced. Enditem