Bush asks for even more Iraq troops

US President George Bush has asked Congress for an extra 8,000 troops for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, on top of the 21,500 reinforcements announced two months ago.

US military officials have meanwhile hinted that there will be even more requests for troops for Iraq in May, when General David Petraeus, who took over as the American commander in Baghdad last month, submits a new strategic plan to Capitol Hill.

The latest request for an extra 4,700 combat support troops and military police is aimed at curbing an increase in violence in the past month. Thirty-one Shi'ite Muslims returning from a religious festival were killed on Sunday by a suicide bomb attack on their minibus in Baghdad.