US President Barack Obama proposed Thursday a slight increase in the defence budget for the 2010 fiscal year even as he warned of possible cuts in big-dollar weapons systems. Obama plans to spend 533.7 billion dollars for the Defence Department, an increase of 4 per cent from last year, plus an additional 130 billion dollars for the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Another 75.5 billion dollars is budgeted for the wars in the 2009 fiscal year that ends September 30. In an address to Congress on Tuesday, Obama said he will look to cut spending on large and expensive weapons systems from the Cold War era that have little application to today's conflicts.
