WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate on Thursday approved a $781 billion increase in U.S. borrowing authority aimed at averting a possible government default on debt this month.

The Senate voted 52-48 to raise the federal debt limit to $8.965 trillion. The measure, the fourth time the cap has been raised since 2002, now goes to U.S. President George W. Bush for signing into law.

Treasury Secretary John Snow applauded passage of the legislation saying it "ensures that the U.S. can deliver on promises already made, such as Social Security and Medicare payments and aid for the victims of the 2005 hurricanes."

Before the vote, the Republican-controlled Senate defeated a move by Democrats to amend the legislation. Had Democrats been successful, they would have forced the U.S. House of Representatives to vote on the bill before recessing on Thursday for more than a week.

The House approved the debt limit increase nearly a year ago, when it passed a fiscal 2006 budget blueprint.

The Senate amendment, by Max Baucus, a Montana Democrat, would have required a study on the impact of rapidly growing, foreign-held debt.

Snow urged Congress this week to raise the $8.18 trillion debt limit and to do so without weighing the measure down with amendments.

No Democrats voted for raising the debt limit, leaving Republicans with casting the politically difficult vote in favor of increased borrowing.

Senate Minority leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, said the rapid run-up in U.S. debt since 2002 was because of the "reckless fiscal policies of this president" and because of a Republican-controlled Congress, which he said is a "rubber stamp" of Bush's initiatives.

During 1998-2001, Congress did not have to increase borrowing authority. But beginning with a $450 billion hike in 2002, there have been regular debt limit increases totaling more than $3 trillion.

Without a significant slowdown in government spending or an increase in revenues, the United States is on a path to $12 trillion in federal debt by 2011, according to government forecasts.
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