April 27 (Bloomberg) -- The cost of the war in Iraq will hit $320 billion once Congress approves an emergency spending measure that's now before the Senate, and that figure probably will double before the war ends, according to the Congressional Research Service.

The cost in fiscal 2006 alone will reach $101.8 billion, double the $51 billion spent in fiscal 2003, the nonpartisan service said. Even if U.S. troops start to leave this year, the total costs of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan will jump by $371 billion during the withdrawal, the report said, citing an estimate from the Congressional Budget office.

The total estimated cost of the two conflicts is now $811 billion, far surpassing the inflation-adjusted $549 billion spent on the Vietnam War, the service said.

``The war is turning out to cost a lot more than anticipated, and not simply because there are far more troops deployed for far longer than the Bush administration assumed,'' said Steve Kosiak, a defense analyst for the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessment, a nonpartisan Washington research group.

``Even adjusting for the size and duration of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the costs are much higher than would have been projected based on the cost of military operations of the fairly recent past -- Bosnia, Kosovo, and Desert Shield/Storm,'' he said.

As of yesterday, 2,388 U.S. military personnel had died in Iraq, according to the Defense Department.

$8.5 Bln Per Month

The Senate is now debating a Bush administration request for $67.6 billion extra this year for the wars. That would bring fiscal 2006 war spending in Iraq to $101.8 billion or almost $8.5 billion a month, or almost double the amount in fiscal 2003 when the war began.

Amy Belasco, author of the congressional report, said some of the cost increase can be explained by more money for radios, night vision goggles, specially armored Humvees and other vehicles and a growing bill to fix and replace equipment that's lost or damaged.

Other contributors include recent Pentagon decisions to factor in higher oil prices into the emergency bill, higher support costs for new bases in Iraq and new funds to train Afghan and Iraqi troops, she said in an e-mail statement.

Still, ``that's not enough to explain the doubling of costs over three years,'' she said. ``There are large chunks of operating costs only identified as ``other services and miscellaneous contracts'' where we don't know the reason for the increases,'' she said.

Congress since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks has approved $368 billion for the global war on terrorism that included about $261 billion for Iraq, $77 billion for Afghanistan and about $26 billion for enhanced base security, according the Research Service in its April 24 report.

The overall number increases to $439 billion, including $320 billion for Iraq, once Congress completes work on the emergency spending package. The House approved the measure last month.

To contact the reporter on this story: Tony Capaccio at acapaccio@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: April 27, 2006 10:37 EDT