Washington  - US Defence Secretary Robert Gates on Monday announced a major shift in the Pentagon's spending priorities, cutting a range of expensive Cold War-era weapons programmes and boosting spending that would aid the country's battle against terrorism.

Gates said the decisions drew heavily on lessons learned from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and represented a shift away from conventional warfare, as well as futuristic military projects where the technology was not yet proven.

The 2010 budget outline would "profoundly reform how this department does business," Gates said at a news conference in Washington, also promising to limit cost-overruns that have cost the defence community billions of dollars.

"These recommendations are the product of a holistic assessment of capabilities, requirements, risks and needs for the purpose of shifting this department in a different strategic direction," Gates said.

Gates proposed slashing 1.4 billion dollars from the US missile defence programme, cutting an 11.3-billion-dollar plan for new helicopters for the president and axing a plan to buy advanced F-22 fighter jets that cost some 140 million dollars apiece.

In contrast to the cuts, Gates proposed an 11-billion-dollar increase in troop recruitment efforts as well as more money for helicopters in Afghanistan and training of foreign forces in counter- insurgency efforts.

The budget outline now goes to President Barack Obama, who will then send the plans to the US Congress. Lawmakers are likely to offer stiff resistance, as many weapons programmes to be axed are built in congressional districts whose representatives will fight to prevent manufacturing jobs from being lost.

On missile defence, Gates said the Pentagon would focus its efforts on the threat from "rogue states" like Iran and North Korea, which launched a rocket Sunday despite widespread international condemnation.

As part of the shift, more US ships will be equipped with missile defence capabilities but there would be no more missile interceptors added to a ground-based installation in Alaska.

Orders of F-22s - an advanced fighter developed during the Cold War - would be capped at 187, most of which have already been delivered. Gates instead would ramp up production of the much cheaper F-35 Joint Strike Fighters.

Gates argued that US efforts against terrorism and insurgents had to become a key element of the US defence budget. But that did not mean conventional warfare against countries would fall off the US radar.

"I'm not trying to have irregular capabilities take the place of the conventional capabilities, I'm just trying to get the irregular guys to have a seat at the table," Gates said.

Gates' proposed budget does not represent a cut of US military spending. Obama in February proposed a 4-per-cent increase in the defence budget as part of an outline of his full 2010 spending plans. He plans to allocate 533.7 billion dollars to the Pentagon, plus an additional 130 billion dollars for the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. (dpa)