WASHINGTON (AP) – A unanimous House agreed late Thursday to immediately spend nearly $1 billion on veterans health care in a swift answer to the president’s call for lawmakers to plug a politically troubling shortfall.

Lawmakers approved by 419-0 a measure to close a funding gap which was disclosed last week to the surprise of lawmakers who were told unexpected health care demands had eaten a $1 billion hole in the budget for the Veterans Affairs Department.

The GOP’s speedy response did not soften Democratic criticism that Republicans ignored the escalating need until it turned into an emergency.

U.S. keeps control of Internet servers

NEW YORK (AP) – The U.S. government will indefinitely retain oversight of the main computers that control traffic on the Internet, ignoring calls by some countries to turn the function over to an international body, a senior official said Thursday.

The announcement marked a departure from previously stated U.S. policy.

Michael D. Gallagher, assistant secretary for communications and information at the Commerce Department, shied away from terming the declaration a reversal, calling it instead “the foundation of U.S. policy going forward.”

“The signals and words and intentions and policies need to be clear so all of us benefiting in the world from the Internet and in the U.S. economy can have confidence there will be continued stewardship,” Gallagher said.

Bush: I couldn’t sign Kyoto pact

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) – President Bush said in a Danish TV interview aired Thursday that adhering to the Kyoto treaty on climate change would have “wrecked” the U.S. economy, and he called U.S. dependence on Gulf oil a “national security problem.”

“I couldn’t in good faith have signed Kyoto,” Bush told the Danish Broadcasting Corp., noting that the treaty did not include other nations – including India and China – that he called “big polluters.”

In Bush’s view, the Kyoto treaty’s mandatory limits also would not ensure that climate risks would be addressed unless countries like China also make emission cuts. He also says more study is needed to determine whether human activity is primarily to blame for rising temperatures.

The interview was recorded Wednesday at the White House. Bush will visit Denmark next week before going to a G-8 summit in Scotland.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair plans to make cutting greenhouse gas emissions a key theme at the G-8 meeting. On Wednesday, Blair told The Associated Press it was not possible to persuade the United States to implement the Kyoto Protocol.

“There is no point in setting a task that is not achievable,” Blair said in an exclusive interview with the AP. “Obviously, there is a disagreement over the Kyoto treaty and you are not going to resolve that disagreement.”

On Thursday, Blair told an MTV audience there would be no solution for global warming without U.S. involvement. The United States is the world’s biggest producer of greenhouse gases, which have been blamed for contributing to global warming.

Later in the Danish interview, Bush said the United States was looking for ways to “diversify away from fossil fuels” to reduce its dependence on Middle East oil.

“We’re hooked on oil from the Middle East, which is a national security problem and an economic security problem,” Bush said.

Bush also defended his decision to go to war in Iraq even though no evidence was found that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction as intelligence reports indicated.

“I’m obviously disappointed. I thought we would find weapons of mass destruction, as did the world,” Bush said. “It wasn’t just our intelligence, nor was it my administration … President Clinton felt the same way, based upon what everybody thought was solid intelligence.”

Bush insisted the decision to invade Iraq was right.

“Because Saddam Hussein was not only a tyrant, he was a threat to world peace. … Even though we have haven’t found the weapons themselves, we certainly know he had the capacity” to make them, Bush said.

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On the Net:

Danish Broadcasting Corporation: http://www.dr.dk

AP-ES-06-30-05 1731EDT

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