(CNN) -- The Kyrgyz government is planning to close a strategically important U.S. military base that Washington uses as a route for troops and supplies heading into Afghanistan, Russian media reported Tuesday.


A U.S. troop guards the main access checkpoint to the Manas Air Base on December 18, 2008.

Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev said Tuesday at a news conference in Moscow that "all due procedures" were being initiated to close Manas Air Base, the Russian news agency RIA-Novosti reported.

The announcement was made after news reports of a multimillion-dollar aid package from Russia to Kyrgyzstan.

Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell on Tuesday called Manas "a hugely important air base."

"It provides us with launching point to provide supplies in Afghanistan. We very much appreciate [Kyrgyz] support in using that base and we hope to continue," he said at his daily news briefing.

Gen. David Petraeus, who oversees U.S. operations in the Middle East and Central Asia, including Afghanistan, was in Kyrgyzstan last month, partly to lobby the government to allow the United States to keep using the base.

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He said he and Kyrgyz leaders did not discuss "at all" the possible closure of the base and said local officials told him there was "no foundation" for news reports about the issue.

The mountainous former Soviet republic is Central Asia's second poorest country.

The United States pays about $63 million a year for use of the base and employs more than 320 Kyrgyz citizens there, Petraeus said. The base has been in operation since December 2001 under U.N. mandate

The Russian newspaper Kommersant reported Tuesday that Russia would offer Kyrgyzstan a $300 million, 40-year loan at an annual interest rate of 0.75 percent, and write off $180 million of Kyrgyz debt.

Kyrgystan is also home to a Russian military base, at Kant, that officially opened in 2003.

The United States is planning to send an additional 30,000 troops to Afghanistan to halt a resurgence of the Taliban. Petraeus described Manas as having "an important role in the deployment of these forces" and in refueling aircraft.

The relationship between the United States and Kyrgyzstan was damaged when a Kyrgyz citizen was killed by a U.S. airman in December 2006. The airman was transferred out of Kyrgyzstan and the dead man's family was offered compensation. Petraeus said in January the investigation was being reopened.

Bakiyev said in announcing the base closure Tuesday he was not satisfied with the inquiry into the accident and that his government's "inability to provide security to its citizens" was proving a serious concern.

U.S. official: Kyrgyz base is not closing
By Mike Eckel - The Associated Press
Posted : Tuesday Feb 3, 2009 18:13:32 EST
MOSCOW — Kyrgyzstan’s president said Tuesday that his country is ending U.S. use of a key airbase that supports military operations in Afghanistan.

A U.S. military official in Afghanistan called President Kurmanbek Bakiyev’s statement “political positioning” and denied the U.S. presence at the Manas airbase would end anytime soon.

Ending U.S. access would have potentially far-reaching consequences for U.S. and NATO operations in Afghanistan, where the United States is preparing to deploy an additional 15,000 troops to shut down the Taliban and al-Qaida.

It would also signal a significant victory for Moscow in its efforts to squeeze the United States out of Central Asia, home to substantial oil and gas reserves and seen by Russia as part of its strategic sphere of influence.

Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev spoke on a visit to Moscow minutes after Russia announced it was providing the poor Central Asian nation with billions of dollars in aid.

The Kyrgyz government “has made the decision on ending the term for the American base on the territory of Kyrgyzstan and this decision will be announced tomorrow or the day after,” Bakiyev said in televised comments.

Col. Greg Julian, the U.S. spokesman in Afghanistan, denied there was any change in U.S. use of the base and he noted that Gen. David Petraeus, commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan and Iraq, recently traveled there.

“I think it’s political positioning. Gen. Petraeus was just there and he talked with them. We have a standing contract and they’re making millions off our presence there. There are no plans to shut down access to it anytime soon,” he told The Associated Press.

Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said: “I have seen nothing to suggest, other than press reports, that the Russians are attempting to undermine our use of that facility.”

The U.S. Embassy in Kyrgyzstan was also unable to comment immediately and said a press briefing was scheduled for Wednesday morning.

The United States set up the Manas base and a base in neighboring Uzbekistan after the September 2001 terror attacks, to back operations in Afghanistan. Uzbekistan expelled U.S. troops from the base on its territory in 2005 in a dispute over human rights issues, leaving Manas as the only U.S. military facility in the region.

There are frequent U.S. flights between Manas and the main U.S. base in Afghanistan at Bagram.

Russia has long been suspicious of the U.S. presence. Russia also uses a military airbase in the ex-Soviet nation.

During his visit last month, Petraeus said that Manas would be key to plans to boost the U.S. troop presence in Afghanistan. He also said the United States currently pumps a total of $150 million into Kyrgyzstan’s economy annually, including $63 million in rent for Manas.

Russia, however, agreed Tuesday to provide Kyrgyzstan with $2 billion in loans plus another $150 million in financial aid.

Central Asia is key to U.S. efforts to secure an alternative supply line to forces in Afghanistan. The main route, through the Khyber Pass in Pakistan’s northwest, has occasionally been closed in recent months due to rising attacks by bandits and Islamist militants, including one Tuesday that destroyed a bridge.

During a trip to the region last month, which included a stop in Kyrgyzstan, Petraeus said America had struck deals with Russia and several Central Asian states close to or bordering Afghanistan.

NATO spokesman Eric Povel said the alliance could not comment because use of the base was an issue for the U.S. and Kyrgyzstan.

“It’s not a NATO base,” he said.

BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan — Kyrgyzstan’s parliament voted Thursday to close a key U.S. air base in the country — a move that could hamper President Barack Obama’s efforts to increase the number of U.S. forces in Afghanistan.

Deputies voted 78-1 with two abstentions for the government-backed bill to cancel the lease agreement on the Manas air base, a transit point for 15,000 troops and 500 tons of cargo each month to and from Afghanistan. The move follows Russia’s offer of $2.15 billion in aid and loans to the impoverished Central Asian country.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, in Poland for NATO talks, said the United States would consider paying more rent to continue using the strategic base. Speaking after the parliament vote in Kyrgyzstan, Gates said he considers talks still open over the future of the base.

Russia has denied pushing Kyrgyzstan to shut the base, but U.S. officials were skeptical.

“I think that the Russians are trying to have it both ways with respect to Afghanistan in terms of Manas,” Gates said. “On one hand you’re making positive noises about working with us in Afghanistan and on the other hand you’re working against us in terms of that airfield which is clearly important to us.”

Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev, who announced the planned eviction and whose government introduced the legislation, is expected to sign the bill in the coming weeks. Once Kyrgyz authorities issue an eviction notice, the United States will have 180 days to leave the base.

Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said the U.S. has “yet to receive any formal notification of a change in status of Manas so our operations there continue as normal.”

“A stable, peaceful Afghanistan is in everyone’s interest, including the Kyrgyz people, and Manas is instrumental to our efforts to make that a reality,” he said. “However, the base is not irreplaceable and we have alternatives should they be needed.”

Widespread public discontent in Kyrgyzstan over the U.S. military presence has been sharpened in recent years by a number of high-profile incidents surrounding the base.

In late 2006, a U.S. serviceman fatally shot truck driver Alexander Ivanov during a routine security check. U.S. officials said Ivanov threatened the serviceman with a knife. On a recent visit to Kyrgyzstan, U.S. Gen. David Petraeus said an investigation into the killing had been reopened.

“So far, no American soldier appeared in court,” Kyrgyz foreign minister Kadyrbek Sarbayev told deputies Thursday.

Sarbayev also complained the United States has failed to adequately compensate Kyrgyzstan for $650,000 worth of damage caused to a civilian Tu-154 plane when it collided with a U.S. KC-135 tanker aircraft.

The only opposition to the Kyrgyz bill came from the Social Democrat party, which argued the shuttering of Manas could undermine national security.

The United States is trying to finalize details of an alternative overland supply route to Afghanistan amid concerns over worsening security in Pakistan. Some 75 percent of U.S. supplies currently travel through Pakistan, where militants have stepped up attacks on truck convoys destined for U.S. bases.

Washington has already received permission from Russia and Kazakhstan to transport non-lethal supplies for Afghanistan by rail. It hopes to secure similar guarantees from Uzbekistan, which has a border and transportation links with Afghanistan.

NATO spokesman James Appathurai said the Kyrgyz vote was “an inconvenience and a decision to regret, but we can certainly absorb it.”

“There is plenty of flexibility in the logistical supply chain for NATO,” he added. “There are alternatives; they will be used.”

About 100 containers of non-lethal supplies bound for Afghanistan left by train Wednesday from Latvia for Russia, U.S. diplomats said.

Also Thursday, a delegation of U.S. military transportation officials arrived in another former Soviet state in the region, Tajikistan, which shares an 810-mile (1,300-kilometer) border with Afghanistan.

The officials will study Tajikistan’s transportation infrastructure and evaluate the potential for shipping nonmilitary cargo through the country to Afghanistan, the Tajik Foreign Ministry said.

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Associated Press writers Anne Gearan and Vanessa Gera in Krakow, Poland, and Olga Tutubalina in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, contributed to this report.