Stevens, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, sought an increase of $200 million for the ground-based, mid-course segment of the national missile-defense system earlier this summer. Portions of that segment are being built and tested in Alaska.

A conference committee assigned to merge the House and Senate versions of the Defense Department spending bill for fiscal year 2004 cut Stevens' request back to $180 million. The House approved that final bill Wednesday and the Senate did so Thursday.

Of the final amount, $160 million is "for additional interceptors and security and communication upgrades" at Fort Greely, according to a news release Thursday from Stevens' office.

Stevens said this summer that the money had been requested by the Defense Department. Missile Defense Agency officials, though, said they were not sure exactly what the money was for.

In a brief summary released last week, members of the Defense conference committee said the money would help meet President Bush's stated goal of having a workable missile-defense system by the fall of 2004.

The MDA declined to speculate on how many additional interceptors might be built with the new money.

The president's budget, to which the $180 million was added, already asked for enough money to cover the 16 interceptors Bush wants at Greely by the fall of 2005, the MDA said in July. Six silos are under construction at this point.

The additional funding for missile interceptors at Fort Greely didn't bump up the administration's total request for missile-defense spending because Congress trimmed an equivalent amount from another segment of the program. The final bill directs $9.1 billion to missile defense in the coming fiscal year, an increase of $1.4 billion over this year but $5 million below the president's request.

The missile-defense increase represents more than a third of the total increase in Defense spending in the coming year, outside the extra money approved just for the war in Iraq. The bill provides $368.2 billion for the Department of Defense in fiscal year 2004. That's $3.8 billion more than the department was given last year before the Iraq war.

According to a news release from Stevens office, other Alaska items in the fiscal 2004 Defense spending bill include:

*$9 million each for utilidor repairs at Fort Wainwright and Eielson Air Force Base.

*$8.2 million for battle targets at the Donnelly Training Area near Fort Greely.

*$5.6 million for urban warfare training center instrumentation upgrades at Fort Wainwright.

*$18.7 million for renovations to Fort Wainwright's central heat and power plant.

*$6 million to help transform U.S. Army Alaska to Stryker Brigades.

*$12.5 million for HC-130 equipment.

*$33.1 million to upgrade the Allen Army Airfield at Fort Greely.

*$8.9 million for an auto test lab at the Cold Region Test Center.

*$4 million for the 611th Red Air Defense command and control system.

*$31.5 million for a variety of electronic warfare simulation upgrades at Eielson Air Force Base and elsewhere.

*$2 million for Mount Fairplay radios.

*$20 million for the radar at Gakona.

*$8 million to continue relocating Alaska Railroad tracks on Elmendorf Air Force Base and Fort Richardson near Anchorage.

*$10.625 million to upgrade a Navy training range on Back Island near Ketchikan.

*$5 million for Port of Anchorage improvements to help the Army.

*$10.2 million for something called the Joint Information Technology Center.

*$2.7 million for the Alaska National Guard's drug interception efforts.

Washington, D.C., reporter Sam Bishop can be reached at sbishop@newsminer.com or (202) 662-8721.