President Bush holds a copy of his latest 2008 budget during a cabinet meeting at the White House, Feb. 5, 2007. Alongside Bush are (L-R) Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne, Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson and Director of the Office of Management and Budget Rob Portman. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo) Photo Gallery>>>

    WASHINGTON, Feb. 5 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President George W. Bush on Monday submitted Congress a record defense budget for fiscal 2008.

    In the federal government's 2.9 trillion U.S. dollars budget request for the 2008 financial year, the White House requested 481 billion dollars for the regular Pentagon budget, a rise of about 11.3 percent.

    Bush also requested 145 billion dollars for U.S. military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan next year, and an additional 100 billion dollars for the current fiscal year that ends on Sept.30. Some 70 billion dollars was earmarked last year for this year's war spending in Iraq and Afghanistan.

    The U.S. will have spent 661.9 billion dollars on military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and related activities if the requests are approved by Congress.

    Congress has already approved 427 billion dollars for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, news reports said.

    In remarks to reporters after meeting with his cabinet members on Monday, Bush said he would not set a timetable for withdrawing U.S. troops out of Iraq.

    "There will be no timetable set," he said.

    The reason that he would not set such a timetable "is because we don't want to send mixed signals to an enemy or to a struggling democracy or to our troops," Bush said.