UPDATE 1-Cost issues, war sap US military readiness-lawmaker

(Adds Skelton quotes, Waxman hearing, GAO report)

By Andrea Shalal-Esa

WASHINGTON, April 29 (Reuters) - A top Democratic lawmaker on Tuesday called for urgent improvement of the U.S. military's readiness, saying the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and cost overruns in weapons programs had sapped its ability to respond quickly to a crisis elsewhere.

Rep. Ike Skelton, a Missouri Democrat who heads the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee, said military officials had finally begun to acknowledge these problems after years of questioning by Congress.

"Should a major unexpected contingency occur today, it could not be answered in a timely fashion and this worries me to death," Skelton told a group of defense writers.

"We are in dire need of upgrading our readiness," he said, citing concerns about military training, the strain of repeated deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan, and difficulties ensuring troops had the equipment they needed.

Noting it has been five years since the Iraq war began, Skelton said the average time between major conflicts over the past decades had been about five years.

Skelton said he hoped to include language in the fiscal 2009 defense spending bill to improve military readiness, increase the focus on Afghanistan, and underscore the need for more help from the State Department and other federal agencies. The legislation will be drafted by his committee next month.

Cost growth in nearly every U.S. weapons program was compounding the issue, he said.