President Bush on Thursday signed into law a $94.5 billion compromise emergency bill to fund the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and to rebuild after last year's hurricanes along the U.S. Gulf Coast.

Bush signed the bill that was easily passed by the Senate earlier on Thursday, two days after it had cleared the House of Representatives.

Under the law, $65.8 billion will be rushed to the Pentagon so it can continue fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan through September.

"I am pleased that Congress has addressed these urgent national priorities within the spending limits I set," Bush said as the Senate passed the measure.

Congress is also advancing separate legislation adding an additional $50 billion in war funds to keep combat operations running from October through March or so.

The law also contains $19.8 billion to help Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and other states recovering from Hurricane Katrina and other storms. A large chunk of those funds would help New Orleans rebuild levees and other infrastructure.

The 98-1 Senate vote came one day after it unanimously put the Bush administration on notice that it would have to improve its budget planning for the high cost of the Iraq war, which is nearing $320 billion.

"I'm frustrated the administration keeps funding this war off-budget," said Sen. Patty Murray, a Washington Democrat, just before the compromise passed.

While Congress has overwhelmingly supported the emergency spending bills for troops fighting abroad, there is growing dissent over how long those troops should stay. The conflict has killed 2,500 U.S. military personnel and tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians.

Some Democrats criticized a provision in the bill that takes away funding for a special inspector to audit Iraq reconstruction contracts and shifts it to the State Department, which they said lacks expertise and resources to do the job.

U.S. border security would be enhanced with additional money to dispatch National Guard troops to the southwest border and hire more agents to patrol. Critics said $1.9 billion instead should have been spent buying new equipment for existing agents.

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