Washington, Oct 29 (DPA) The US officially revealed the total amount of money spent on intelligence gathering and espionage for the first time Thursday, putting the cost for the 2010 fiscal year at $80 billion.

The amount appropriated to non-military operations, including the Central Intelligence Agency, for 2010 was $53.1 billion, the office of the Director of National Intelligence said. Meanwhile, the Pentagon announced it was given $27 billion for intelligence.

The US government's long-standing policy was to keep intelligence budgets classified over concerns that other countries could glean information about the effectiveness of US operations based on the amount spent.

But budgets have been made public through leaks and other unofficial channels, prompting calls to end the practice and officially announce intelligence budgets.

Congress eventually passed the Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010 that required the publication of the total intelligence budget.