President Obama, has signed into law a $680bn defence budget for the next fiscal year, which includes $170bn in funding for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

"I have always rejected the notion that we have to waste billions of dollars of taxpayer money to keep this nation secure," Obama said at the signing ceremony, which was also attended by Robert Gates, the US defence secretary, and Joe Biden, the country's vice-president.

"I think wasting these dollars makes us less secure. That is why we have passed a defence bill that eliminates some of the waste and inefficiency in our defence process; reforms that will better protect our nation, better protect our troops and save taxpayers tens of billions of dollars," Obama said.

Hate crimes definition

In the 2010 budget, funding has been cut to no-bid contracts and several defence contracts that have cost far more than anticipated due to protracted delays.

The bill also contained an expansion to the definition of federal hate crimes, to include criminal acts based on gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability.

"After more than a decade of opposition and delay, we've passed inclusive hate crimes legislation to help protect our citizens from violence based on what they look like, who they love, how they pray or who they are," Obama said.

The expansion to the hate crimes law had been sought by civil rights and gay rights groups but conservatives had opposed it, saying that it could silence groups or individuals who are opposed to homosexuality on religious or philosophical grounds.

The measure is named in honour of Matthew Shepard, the gay Wyoming college student who was murdered 11 years ago.

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