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The White House budget office has proposed eliminating funding for United Nations peacekeeping missions, citing failures by operations in Mali, Lebanon and Democratic Republic of Congo, according to internal planning documents seen by Reuters. Washington is the U.N.'s largest contributor - with China second - accounting for 22% of the $3.7 billion core regular U.N. budget and 27% of the $5.6 billion peacekeeping budget. These payments are mandatory. The proposed peacekeeping cuts are included in a so-called "Passback," the response by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to State Department funding requests for the upcoming fiscal year, which begins on October 1. The overall plan wants to slash the State Department budget by about half.