Gates: No sharp cuts in military budget

Defense Secretary Robert Gates predicted on Monday that growth in US military spending would level off in the coming years but not face severe cutbacks, despite the current economic crisis.

"While there's a lot of debate over Iraq, there really is very broad bipartisan support for a strong defense and support for our men and women in uniform in the Congress," Gates said at the National Defense University in Washington.

"I certainly would expect growth to level off and my guess would be we'll be fortunate in the years immediately ahead ... if we were able to stay flat with inflation," he said.