WASHINGTON — Soldiers aren't the only foreign contribution in short supply for the U.S. effort in Iraq. So is money.
U.S. officials are finding it hard to persuade allies to help underwrite the costs of policing and rebuilding the ravaged country, even as Congress steps up pressure on the administration to find a way to share the burden.
After months of appeals from U.S. and U.N. leaders, key foreign governments including Russia, China, France and Germany remain adamant that they will not contribute in those areas, U.S. officials say.
The issue has taken on new urgency in recent days as the Bush administration has begun preparing a supplemental budget request that officials say could reach as much as $3 billion. U.S. officials had expected that renewed Iraqi oil exports would help finance reconstruction, but exports have rebounded more slowly than expected, at least in part due to looting and sabotage.
The anticipated budget request is alarming lawmakers, who see it as evidence that the burden on U.S. taxpayers will far outstrip expectations.
To increase foreign contributions, U.S. officials have been working with the United Nations to arrange a "donors conference" in Madrid in late October that they hope will bring commitments of billions of dollars. Yet one U.S. official acknowledged the frustration of trying to gain aid commitments.
"We are really puzzled on how to get more aid from these countries, when they have been refusing now for such a long time," the official said.
Officials of the reluctant countries, all of which opposed the Iraq war, insist that they intend to help the Iraqis. Several say they are already contributing to humanitarian relief. But they also say they cannot contribute to the reconstruction and security effort unless the United States agrees to give other governments a role, and agrees to more transparency on how aid money is used.
The issue has become entangled in an intensifying behind-the-scenes debate among diplomats over whether there should be a new U.N. Security Council resolution that would shift some authority in Iraq from the U.S. to the international community.
In the past week, U.S. diplomats have stepped up their efforts to find a compromise that would give other countries a voice in Iraq, and by doing so, bring in more foreign money and peacekeeping troops. President Bush has said that he wants to give the United Nations a "vital role" in Iraq. Yet it remains unclear whether the White House would agree to a new arrangement -- long opposed by the Pentagon -- that would divide decision-making in the country.
