Washington: Experts in US have estimated the costs of an invasion of Iraq and its post-war occupation to be as high as $ 200 billion, a huge jump from the costs of the 1991 Gulf War.

However, if the fighting is protracted, and President Saddam Hussein blows up Iraq's oil fields, most economists fear that indirect costs of the war could be much greater, reverberating through the US economy for many years, a report in the 'Washington Post' said on December 1.

"If we can plan a war, we should also be planning a way for the war," Congressman John Spratt said warning "last time, we were able to slough the costs off on other countries. This time, we have to absorb most of these costs ourselves."

In 1991, US taxpayers paid about 12 per cent of the military costs of the Gulf War, with the remainder of the burden being shared among such countries as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Germany and Japan. However, this time none of these countries is expected to contribute significantly.

Using different methodologies, the non-partisan Congressional Budget office and staff for the Democrat minority on the House Budget Committee have concluded that a short, decisive war involving deployment of 250,000 troops could cost between $ 44 billion and $ 60 billion but the post-war occupation costs will be considerably greater.

However, a White House official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said it would be premature to talk about the costs of a war with Iraq because US President George W Bush has not decided on use of military force.

PTI