President George W. Bush's budget proposal to Congress would increase fiscal year 2004 funding for the agency by $109 million to $4.06 billion.

Together, the Forest Service and the U.S. Interior Department will receive $2.2 billion for firefighting programs, an increase of $219 million over last the last fiscal year.

After exhausting their funds in 2002, the agencies had to borrow nearly $1 billion to contain the blazes.

Last year, President George W. Bush proposed the "Healthy Forest" initiative that would trim some environmental regulations in 10 million acres (4 million hectares) of fire-prone forests to speed the removal of dangerous underbrush and dead trees that serve as fuel in spreading wildfires.

Environmentalists have criticized the program as a way to give logging companies more access to timber under the guise of forest protection.

Mark Rey, USDA undersecretary, told Reuters that most of the wood removed under the administration's "Healthy Forest" plan would not be available for commercial sale by lumber companies. The Forest Service is an agency within the USDA.

As part of the White House plan to improve forest health, the 2004 budget includes $416 million to treat 2.5 million acres of dense forest land susceptible to fires.

"This proposal will help better protect our national forests and our rural communities from catastrophic fires caused by years of mismanagement," said Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman, detailing the department's 2004 budget proposal.

The Forest Service also said it plans to offer 2 billion board feet of timber for sale in fiscal 2004, unchanged from the current year. The timber sales would be a small part of the Forest Service's $1.57 billion budget, up slightly from an estimated $1.399 billion this year.

Sales are much lower than the late 1980s, when several billion feet were offered.

Still, following last year's severe fire season, Rey said timber removal would likely be increased in forests that were damaged last year by fire.