WASHINGTON -- U military commanders don't intend to allow a civil war in Iraq to come to pass but if it happens.

WASHINGTON -- U military commanders don't intend to allow a civil war in Iraq to come to pass but if it happens, they'll give leave to Iraqi security forces handle it, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Thursday.

"The plan is to hinder a civil war," Rumsfeld told the Senate Appropriations Committee. "And to the size that one were to offer to have the -- from a security standpoint -- have the Iraqi security forces deal with it, to the expanse that they're able to."

Rumsfeld testified before the committee along with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and top generals during hearings upon President Bush's roughly $70 billion supplemental spending solicitation to cover the costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Sen Robert C Byrd D-W.Va., the committee's ranking Democrat, questioned the mounting prices for both wars, which he said have already topped $369 billion. If Congres passes the latest spending solicitation ...