Facing an impasse between the White House and the Congress over a war-funding bill, the Pentagon plans to use funds from Air Force and Navy to cover the costs of Army operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In a letter revealed Thursday, Defense Secretary Robert Gates raised the issue with Senate Appropriations Chairman Robert Byrd.

"The defense department shortly will be presenting to the Congress a 1.6 billion-U.S.-dollar reprogramming request that proposes to shift 0.8 billion dollars from both the Navy and Air Force military personnel accounts to the Army Operation and Maintenance accounts," he told Byrd.

Gates also sought to rebut findings of a March 28 Congressional Research Service (CRS) memorandum to the Senate Budget Committee, which concluded that the Army has enough money in its existing budget to fund operations and maintenance through the end of May.

Moreover, the CRS said with the existing transfer authority, the Army would have enough money to continue operations until the end of July.

Both the House and Senate have attached language to legislation calling for U.S. combat troops to leave Iraq in 2008 -- the House by the end of August, the Senate by March of that year.

But U.S. President George W. Bush repeatedly said he won't accept any bill that includes a timeline for withdrawal.

If he vetoes the bill, which looks certain, the congress will need a two-third majority to overthrow the veto.

Otherwise, the congress will have to draft a new funding bill and send to Bush again.

With neither side willing to back down, there seems no way out of the impasse at the moment.

Both sides are trying to blame each other for the possible delay of war funding that results from the impasse.