"So the fact that you have people deployed in a time of war to protect Americans is important, but at the same time you also maintain your capability of dealing with domestic concerns."

US President George W. Bush is to visit Greensburg on Wednesday after the small Kansas prairie town was flattened by a tornado on Friday which left at least 10 people dead.

Bush is still haunted by the specter of Hurricane Katrina, which ravaged New Orleans in August 2005, and left US authorities heavily under fire for failing to act quickly to send in rescue and emergency services.

Greensburg, a town of some 1,800 residents about 120 miles (200 kilometers) west of Wichita, was virtually obliterated by the giant twister which struck late Friday, and Democratic Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius has already complained of a lack of lifting equipment to help the rescue effort.

She charged that the necessary machines had been deployed out of the US for the war in Iraq, increasing pressure on Bush locked in a standoff with the Democratic-controlled Congress over funding the conflict.

Democrats are seeking ways to force Bush and the Republican administration to bring home US troops from Iraq, and touched off new skirmish on Tuesday, with a plan to finance the unpopular war for just three months, while retaining the option to cut funding in July.

With the approach of hurricane season in June, the issue of the country's readiness to deal with natural disasters is likely to shoot to the top of the agenda again.

Snow said the country would be ready for the new hurricane season. "We certainly hope so. Again, you don't want to make predictions. But on the other hand, there is an enormous amount of planning going on so that you have the flexibility."

Much of the focus is on the National Guard, whose members serve each US state, often in domestic emergencies, but also has members deployed in Iraq.

Snow acknowleged that many states had "expressed concerns about National Guard levels into the future. And they have talked about Iraq deployments."

"It's one of the reasons why the president talked about expanding the military, in part to take pressure off National Guard units," he added.

But in the case of Kansas, he said, out of the 6,800 available National Guard, only 566 were needed to help in the crisis.

Earlier Snow reiterated that the US administration was "eager to provide what Kansas needs."

But he added: "It's interesting because as far as we know, the only thing the governor has requested are FM radios. There has been no request of the National Guard for heavy equipment."

Authorities said Friday's twister damaged or destroyed about 90 percent of the commercial and residential buildings in Greensburg.

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