Washington, July 22 - In the face of a veto threat by President Barack Obama, the US Senate has voted to block expansion of one of America's most controversial and expensive defence programmes, production of the F-22 fighter jet.

The 58-40 vote Tuesday gave the White House and Pentagon a key victory over congressional supporters of the F-22, many of whom represent states and districts where jobs are tied to the production of the jet. The vote, which stripped $1.75 billion for an additional seven F-22s from the fiscal year 2010 budget, was a reversal of an earlier Senate committee decision to include money for the programme.

The change came in a response to strong pressure from Obama, Defence Secretary Robert Gates and several key senators who argued that the additional planes are not needed or wanted by the military.

'At a time when we're fighting two wars and facing a serious deficit, (expanding the F-22) would have been an inexcusable waste of money,' Obama said shortly after the vote.

'Every dollar of waste in our defence budget is a dollar we can't spend to support our troops or prepare for future threats or protect the American people.'

Under the 2010 budget proposed by Gates, production of the F-22 would be halted at 187 planes.