President George W. Bush was expected to sign the bill, which passed the Senate late Friday after a conference committee reached a compromise on separate House and Senate versions.

"I am pleased that Congress moved quickly and with strong bipartisan support to pass my request for our military and to bolster our homeland defenses during Operation Iraqi Freedom," Bush said in a statement.

"This legislation includes the resources necessary to win the war and help secure enduring freedom and democracy for the Iraqi people."

Bush had asked for 74.7 billion dollars, but congressional leaders added many spending proposals to the bill, such as three billion dollars to aid the nation's airlines, hit hard by a drop in travel.

Lawmakers also dropped from the text an amendment barring companies from France, Germany, Russia and Syria from taking part in US-funded reconstruction bids in Iraq after the White House opposed the measure. The four countries opposed the US-led invasion.

House Speaker Dennis Hastert praised House leaders for keeping the bill free of unnecessary spending. Some lawmakers had criticized colleagues for attempting to attach amendments providing money for projects not related to the war.

"I am disappointed that some Senate provisions were ultimately included that were not war or homeland security-related, but the vast majority of those provisions were stripped from the final conference report," he said.

Nearly 63 billion dollars of the total would go to the Pentagon. Congress, however, rejected Bush's request for authority to spend most of the sum as he saw fit.

Instead, Bush will have flexibility to spend some nine billion dollars in defense money provided five days' notice is given of how the money will be spent.

Lawmakers also gave Bush the authority he sought to spend 2.5 billion dollars to rebuild Iraq in the wake of the war. The Senate tried to prevent that measure, but House and Senate appropriators removed its attempted ban.

The administration, for its part, had opposed a 2.9-billion-dollar package for US airlines struggling from a downturn in the economy, the effects of September 11, 2001, the war in Iraq, and now the appearance of the deadly SARS virus that has most strongly affected parts of Asia.

Of the figure allocated for the airlines, some 275 million dollars was to assist up to 200,000 workers affected by layoffs.

In addition to 1.4 billion dollars set aside for Pakistan, Jordan and other countries to combat terrorism, the bill provides one billion dollars' economic aid for Turkey.

The financing for Ankara has been controversial, after Turkey's parliament failed to give the United States the go-ahead to move its ground troops onto Turkish territory to open a war front on Iraq from the north.

The vote Saturday was the final one following a week in which lawmakers had approved a 2.2-trillion-dollar budget calling for significant tax cuts.

The budget anticipates deficits of more than 300 billion dollars this year.

SPACE.WIRE