Key Democratic lawmaker Murtha in hospital

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Rep. John Murtha, the powerful Pennsylvania Democrat who heads the House Defense Appropriations subcommittee, was in the intensive care unit at a Virginia hospital on Tuesday after complications related to gall bladder surgery last week.

Murtha, 77, was being treated in intensive care at Virginia Hospital Center in Arlington, said spokesman Matthew Mazonkey.

Murtha experienced complications after undergoing a scheduled laparoscopic surgery to remove his gall bladder last week at Bethesda Naval Hospital, Mazonkey said.

The congressman, who wields great influence over defense programs, was hospitalized in December when his gall bladder became infected, which prompted the surgery last week.

He returned to the Capitol in December to oversee passage of the 2010 House defense appropriations bill.

The bill included funding for several programs targeted for termination by the Pentagon, including money for 10 more Boeing Co C-17 transport planes and an alternate engine for the F-35 Joint Strike that is made by General Electric and Britain's Rolls-Royce Group.

The White House is again seeking to kill those two programs with its fiscal 2011 budget request, but some lawmakers have already vowed to fight those proposals.

(Reporting by Andrea Shalal-Esa; Editing by Doina Chiacu