WASHINGTON - MONEY for cancer research would increase under President Barack Obama's proposed US budget, a down payment on his pledge to double research funding over five years.

Obama is calling for more than US$6 billion (S$9.23 billion) in spending on cancer research at the National Institutes of Health next year. His proposal released on Thursday does not offer specifics. But if enacted, the vast majority of that money is certain to go to the National Cancer Institute, which leads the NIH's research into better ways to prevent, diagnose and treat cancer.

By cancer advocates' tally, that would make for more than a 15 per cent increase in NCI spending, the amount expected under a five-year goal of doubling research.

Also not clear is whether all of that money would be new or if some would be shifted to cancer from other diseases. Obama did not make public his overall spending plans for the NIH, the premier US research agency.

The NIH spends about US$30 billion a year in the quest for better health, but in recent years its budget hasn't kept up with inflation. In Congress, the House this week passed legislation that would increase NIH's budget for this year by about 3 per cent. -- AP