The mayor said the money will pay for extra transport police

But average bills are likely to be �60 higher overall, once councils set their budgets, said BBC London political editor Tim Donovan.

The mayor said the budget, agreed on Wednesday, was a budget for safer stations and neighbourhoods.

But opponents criticised bureaucracy at City Hall, designed to hold 450 staff, which next year will house 680.

Lib Dem Mike Tuffrey said: "A mayor who was genuinely concerned about the limits of the council tax levels would be rather less prone to drive up the level and rather more keen to spend the resources wisely."

'Too much money'

And Conservative London Assembly member Bob Neill said: "It takes, in our judgement, too much money out of Londoners' pockets. "

But the assembly passed Ken Livingstone's finance plan on Wednesday without making any amendments.

The budget means the average Londoner will pay nearly �290 to the mayor in council tax next year - double what he was given five years ago.

Some borough councils have asked that the mayor's precept is collected separately, so there is no confusion about who costs what.

All of this extra policing will cost the average Londoner just 27p per week Ken Livingstone

Two thirds of the mayor's demands - about �20 per Londoner - will go to fund the 2012 Games and paralympics, under a pre-arranged deal with the government.

Most of the rest will go on policing. Mr Livingstone said he had budgeted �3.6m for an extra 89 police officers to tackle robbery and violent crimes at railway and Tube stations.

And about �32m will go on completing the roll out of the Safer Neighbourhood Teams - in which a sergeant, a police officer and two community support officers are in every ward in every London borough.

Mr Livingstone said: "All of this extra policing will cost the average Londoner just 27p per week.

"This is a budget for safer stations, safer neighbourhoods and a safer London."

The Conservatives and Liberal Democrats said they would have saved money by abandoning schemes such as the western expansion of the congestion charge zone and the West London Tram.