THE American Association of Port Authorities (AAPA) proposed to Congress last year a list of US$8 billion in roads, dredging and other expansion and repair projects, according to comments made by association chief executive Kurt Nagle in a Bloomberg interview.

They may get about a quarter of that, according to Carl Bentzel, a lobbyist with DCI Group in Washington, who has clients in the shipping industry.

This comes as US President Barack Obama pledged last month to improve security at major ports as part of his emphasis on infrastructure in the economic recovery package, and analysts said the facilities may finally get money to pay for federal mandates imposed in a 2002 port security law, the report said.

"This does illustrate that he''s going to try to be more aggressive to do something about the ports," Mr Bentzel was quoted as saying, after helping to write the 2002 law that set port security requirements when he worked for the Senate commerce committee.

The AAPA, representing 86 US port authorities, said the stimulus money is only part of what its members may gain from the debate in Washington.

"We''re very pleased that even the thought and word ''ports'' gets into the vernacular and people are thinking about that," said Aaron Ellis, a spokesman for the group. "Ports are being identified as critical infrastructure in the transportation system. That really is a first."

The US has a $43 billion annual trust fund that pays for highways and transit. Last year, the federal government spent less than $2 billion on ports, according to AAPA vice president Jean Godwin,

In a recently approved $838 billion economic stimulus plan by the Senate, the funds include $100 million for port security grants, similar to allocations in the House-passed bill.

The ports association is said to prefer the Senate bill because it gives more money to the US Army Corps of Engineers for waterways projects, such as dredging, and allows ports better access to federal highway money, according to Mr Ellis. The Senate bill has $4.6 billion for the Corps'' projects, $100 million more than the House measure.

"There are provisions in both bills that are crucial to seaports," he was cited as saying in the report. "However, we are urging our members to support the Senate provisions that are related to higher funding for the Corps."

Port officials are said to be keen to rebuild and expand roads, rail systems and waterways and to create so-called green jobs.

The neighbouring Port of Los Angeles and Long Beach wants money from the measure to help pay for a "clean truck" programme that aims to retire trucks with cleaner and less polluting trucks to serve the port. The two ports are seeking $400 million in stimulus funds to speed up the truck replacement programme, the first phase of which started in October. The port is served by 16,800 short-haul trucks.

Nationwide, more of the funding for ports is expected to go towards security equipment, particularly scanning devices that can detect dangerous cargo, Bloomberg added.