DATE: Thursday, October 23, 1997            TAG: 9710230505

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A7   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS 

DATELINE: WASHINGTON                        LENGTH:   25 lines

SENATORS: NATO EXPANSION WILL CUT U.S. BUDGET

Senators expressed doubts Wednesday that the Pentagon could pay the United States' costs of NATO enlargement without cutting back on other military programs, despite assurances by the nation's top military officer.

Gen. Henry H. Shelton, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the total cost of expanding the alliance - estimated at between $27 billion and $35 billion - translated to a U.S. share of about $200 million annually for 10 years.

``These costs are less than one-tenth of one percent of the Department of Defense budget,'' he said. ``And what we gain from that, in terms of the NATO collective security, I think, fully justifies that type of an expenditure.''

But several senators questioned how the Pentagon was going to afford to modernize and replace its arsenal in coming years.

Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, the committee chairman, proposed cutting back the 100,000-strong U.S. military presence in Europe after Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic are inducted into NATO in 1999.

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