WASHINGTON Ñ A key Senate panel has cut $1.3 billion from the Bush administration's missile defense program.

The Senate Armed Services Committee voted 13-12 to cut the money during a hearing on the defense authorization bill on Friday. The panel approved a $343 billion defense budget for fiscal 2002.

The administration has asked Congress for $8.3 billion in missile defense for fiscal 2002, which begins in October. This is a $3 billion increase from the current year.

Senate Democrats said the panel approved the largest increase of any program in the defense budget. The House Armed Services Committee, controlled by the Republicans, has refused to follow the Senate cut in the administration's budget request.

It is unclear how the proposed budget decrease in the administration's request will affect U.S. missile defense cooperation plans. Israel has asked for a $50 million increase in the Arrow-2 joint missile defense project on top of a $65 million allocation requested by the White House for 2002.

Amid the vote to cut the missile defense budget, Senate Armed Services Committee chairman Carl Levin also included a provision that Congress must approve any missile defense tests that violate the terms of the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty. The administration has regarded the treaty as obsolete.

The full Senate will take up the defense budget request later this month.

In another development, the United States faces an increasingly tough battle against leaks of sensitive technology. A new official report said 63 countries, many of them from the Middle East, have used improper means in attempts to obtain sensitive U.S. technology.

The technology includes computers, aircraft, missiles and sensors.

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