WASHINGTON, Nov. 17 (Xinhua) -- The Bush administration is preparing its largest spending request yet for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, a proposal that could make the conflict the most expensive since World War II, a U.S. newspaper reported Friday.

    The Pentagon is considering 127 billion to 160 billion U.S. dollars in requests from the armed services for the 2007 fiscal year, which began last month, the USA Today quoted several lawmakers and congressional staff members as saying.

    The new request being considered for the war on terror would be about one-fourth what the government spends annually on Social Security, and 10 times what it spends on its space program, the report said.

    The money would be on top of 70 billion dollars already approved for 2007, and would be used to replace and repair equipment and redeploy troops, according to the report.

    The U.S. Congress has approved 502 billion dollars for the war on terror since 2001, roughly two-thirds for Iraq, according to the newspaper.

    The latest request, due to reach the incoming Democratic-controlled Congress next spring, would make the war on terror more expensive than the Vietnam War.

    "We're easily headed toward 600 billion," said Bill Hoagland, a senior budget adviser to Senate Republicans. The figure would top the 536 billion-dollar cost of Vietnam in today's dollars. World War II cost an inflation-adjusted 3.6 trillion dollars, the report said.