WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush's request for nearly $200 billion more to fund the Iraq war will not be approved unless it is linked to a plan to bring home U.S. combat troops by January 2009, the head of the House appropriations committee said on Tuesday.

Rep. David Obey, a Wisconsin Democrat, told a news conference his panel would not even consider the war funding request until early 2008, by which time he estimates funding for military operations will have run out. Defense Secretary Robert Gates recently outlined the request to Congress.

Obey said he and other Democrats also would introduce a surtax to pay for the war in Iraq, although he acknowledged he did not expect the House Democratic leaders to support a war surtax plan.

Indeed, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, said she is "opposed to a war surtax," adding, "The choice is between a Democratic plan for responsible redeployment of our troops and the president's plan for a 10-year war in Iraq. We must end this war."

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said there was "no need" to raise taxes because Bush had laid out a long-term budget plan that he estimates would erase deficits by 2012.

In proposing the new timetable for withdrawing troops, Obey said, "As chairman of the appropriations committee, I have no intention of reporting out of committee any time in this session of Congress any such (war funding) request that simply serves to continue the status quo."

Only about 25 percent of Americans support the administration's $190 billion war funding request, while about 70 percent want the proposed allocation reduced, a Washington Post-ABC News poll published on Tuesday said.

Obey said he would be more willing to consider the money request if it would also "establish as a goal the end of U.S. involvement in combat operations by January of 2009." That is when the next U.S. president would succeed Bush, who is not allowed to run for a third, four-year term.

WAR SURTAX PLAN

Democrats, who have majorities in both houses of Congress, have repeatedly tried but failed to force the Bush administration to bring U.S. troops home from the Iraq war, which began in March 2003. While the House has approved demands for troops to come home, the more narrowly divided Senate has gridlocked over the issue.

Gates last week said the administration's new war funding request would be about $189 billion. That would be in addition to about $600 billion already approved for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Obey, who was accompanied by Democratic Reps. John Murtha of Pennsylvania and James McGovern of Massachusetts, noted Bush was borrowing ever more money for the war.

Therefore, Obey said, they would "call the president's bluff" and introduce legislation for a war surtax.

"If the president really is concerned about stopping red ink, we are prepared to introduce legislation which will provide for a war surtax for that portion of military costs that are related to our military actions in Iraq," Obey said.

The surtax plan was still being drafted, but it would range from about 2 percent to 15 percent of an individual's tax burden, depending on their income, Obey said. It would be intended to raise some $150 billion a year, the approximate annual cost of the Iraq war.

(Additional reporting by Donna Smith)