WASHINGTON (AFP) - The US Senate unanimously gave final approval to an 82 billion dollar emergency spending bill to fund military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

President George W. Bush requested the extra funding to cover the cost of US military operations, which have spiraled upward as US troops combat burgeoning insurgencies in both countries. The bill now goes to the White House for his signature.

Democratic Senator Joe Lieberman, who has just returned from Iraq, strongly urged approval for the measure, which was backed by all 100 senators in the chamber.

"I come back feeling that we are at a tipping point and it's moving in the right direction in Iraq that requires the sustained, strong, invisible American support that is expressed in this supplemental appropriations," he said.

"There's no doubt that the recent spate of suicide bombings has riveted the media's attention and as a result the attention of the American people. But I assure you that those suicide bombings and those suicide bombers are just a small, though devastating, part of life in Iraq today," Lieberman said on the Senate floor.

He pointed to what he said was incontrovertible proof of progress in Iraq.

"There are more than 25 million people in Iraq. Eight million of them came out in the face of terrorist threats to vote for self-governance on January 30 of this year. They have stood up a government which is impressive and inclusive. Their military is gaining strength and self-sufficiency every day," Lieberman said.

The additional monies are intended to fund US military operations through the end of the 2005 fiscal year, which ends September 30.

The legislation also includes 92 million dollars to aid displaced refugees in Sudan and 222 million in humanitarian relief for Asian countries struck by December's tsunami.

The House of Representatives last week approved the measure by a vote of 368 to 58.

The measure passed despite a controversial anti-immigration provision that would impose strict requirements on how states issue driver's licenses and state identification cards, in a move some see as the first step toward a national identification card.

Critics say under the provision, millions of undocumented aliens will be prohibited from getting driver's licenses, and motor vehicles registration bureaus across the United States will, in effect, be turned into immigration enforcement offices.

Lieberman, for one, criticized the provision in the bill as "rigid and unworkable," -- a view shared by many of his Democratic colleagues.

"The restrictions on immigration in the Real ID Act are not necessary to protect national security. Rather they will only serve to create serious and unjustified hardships on people fleeing persecution, and also for other non-citizens," said another Democrat, Russ Feingold.