Pentagon pulls $171 million from Iraq projects after questions from Congress

WASHINGTON (CNN) - The Pentagon has agreed to cut $171 million that had been slated to build police stations in Iraq after demands from Congress that the Iraqi government spend its recent oil windfall on reconstruction projects.

In a letter to the Senate Armed Services Committee, released Tuesday, Defense Secretary Robert Gates wrote that he had heard senators' concerns "loud and clear" during hearings earlier this month. As a result, he wrote, "We will seek full funding from the government of Iraq for this purpose."

The amount is a small fraction of the roughly $47 billion that Congress has approved to rebuild Iraq since the U.S. invasion in 2003. But both Democrats and Republicans have complained that American taxpayers are continuing to fund reconstrution work in Iraq when crude oil prices, now nearing $120 a barrel, have left the country's U.S.-backed government reaping a budget surplus in the tens of billions of dollars.