BC-EU--Britain-Spending Cuts,0128

Stonehenge monument targeted in UK spending cuts

LONDON (AP) -- Britain's new coalition government says it has axed or suspended 10 billion pounds (US$15 billion) worth of projects agreed in the final months of Gordon Brown's administration.

Plans halted include a proposed 25 million pound (US$38 million) visitor center for the famous prehistoric monument Stonehenge, in southern England.

Britain's new government has pledged to quickly cut the country's record public sector deficit. The U.K. notched up 156 billion pounds ($229 billion) of borrowing in the previous fiscal year which ended April 5.

Danny Alexander, a Treasury minister, told the House of Commons on Thursday that 24 of 217 projects reviewed were being halted.

He said the plans "had been approved with no money in place to pay for them."