Washington ? America’s top military leaders said Thursday that despite the war on terrorism and other pressures on U.S. forces around the world, the Pentagon will be able to take on any additional mission that President Bush orders.

“You can be absolutely certain that to the extent that the United States of America decides to undertake an activity, that we will be capable of doing it,” said Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld.

“We’ll be ready to do whatever the president asks us to do,” Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said at a press conference with Rumsfeld.

They were responding to reporter’s questions about assertions by U.S. military commanders in recent congressional testimony that they didn’t have the people and other assets to do all they needed to do.

Myers said that it’s true the Pentagon in recent months has assigned resources based on a different set of priorities than it used before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on America.

“And so, some … commanders might feel they don’t have everything they need to do everything they want to do,” Myers said.

He said the decisions made have been appropriate.

Commanders for U.S. forces in the Pacific and Europe were asked at a House Armed Services Committee hearing last week whether they had what it would take to carry out all current operations as well as possible military action against Iraq.

“We do not have adequate forces to carry out our missions for the Pacific if the operations in the Central Command (Afghanistan) continue at their recent past and current pace,” Navy Adm. Dennis C. Blair, commander in chief of the Pacific Command, told the House Armed Services Committee.

Air Force Gen. Joseph W. Ralston, commander in chief of the European Command, gave a similar response.

“The answer to your question as you posed it is: I do not have the forces in EUCOM today to carry out these missions,” he said, adding that he would have to go back to Myers and Rumsfeld to ask for more and that they would have to make more choices.

A week before that, another top general told the same committee hearing that an increase in forces is needed to keep up with the pace of fighting in Afghanistan, protecting the homeland and other efforts.

“They’re tired, sir,” Army Gen. William F. Kernan, commander in chief of the U.S. Joint Forces Command, told the same committee. “We are busy. We are busier than we have ever been.”

Rep. Ike Skelton, D-Mo., noted that leaders of the four military services have indicated they need a total of 51,400 more people: The Army, 40,000; Air Force, 6,000; Marines, 2,400, and Navy, 3,000. The current cap on Army personnel is 480,000; Air Force 358,800; Marines 172,600, and Navy, 376,000.