HONOLULU -- Mayor Mufi Hannemann is asking for millions of dollars to finish a new elephant exhibit at the Honolulu Zoo that's been in the works for over a decade.

A large portion of the enclosure is finished and sits empty -- waiting for the funding to complete the job.

KITV's Keoki Kerr reported that in his budget proposal last week, Hannemann asked for about $7 million to complete an elephant breeding facility here at the zoo.

The zoo's two female Indian elephants live in a cramped, old facility at the zoo. A few steps away is a new living space for them that's only half-finished, so they can't move in, zoo officials said.

The Hannemann administration scaled back plans by the previous mayor that would have cost about $11 million -- dropping a long moat, among other things.

"What we're hoping the council will agree to giving us for funding will be to finish this habitat that's been in the making for over 10 years," Enterprise Services Department Director Sidney Quintal said.

When the federal government approved an import permit for one of the zoo's elephants in 1992, it was contingent on the zoo's promise to build a breeding facility here.

"We have an agreement with the (United States Department of Agriculture) to actively breed our elephants -- that was a condition of our import permit," Quintal said.

Hannemann has been pushing for the breeding facility since 1999, when he chaired the city council.

"I'm here to say emphatically -- we will find the money for these elephants. It's no question. We cannot afford to be in breach of that contract," Hannemann said in 1999.

The city already spent $6 million on the holding facility -- the non-public area of the new elephant exhibit.

"Until this entire exhibit is finished, the zoo can't use special features that have already been built, like this elephant-sized scale, which is also a squeeze-chute, where the elephants can be placed and then rotated for medical examinations and treatment," Quintal said. "If we don't get the money, it's just going to remain this way, and unfortunately, we have two elephants in a very old exhibit area, and we are unable to bring them out to use the new facility."

The zoo would obviously need to get a male elephant to start breeding here.

For politicians, it's a case of a half-built bridge, officials said. The city's already spent millions on the first phase, and now they have to decide whether to spend millions more to finish it.