Kyrgyzstan approves US base deal

US troops have been using Manas airbase since late 2001

Kyrgyzstan's parliament has approved a deal with the US to allow it to keep using an airbase used to support US and Nato operations in Afghanistan.

Kyrgyzstan reversed a February decision ordering the US to leave the Manas base after the US agreed to more than triple its annual rent to $60m (£37m).

The base, near Kyrgyz capital Bishkek, has been used to ferry troops to Afghanistan and refuel military planes.

Kyrgyz authorities say it can only be used to transport non-combat supplies.

The agreement was approved by 75 of Kyrgyzstan's 90-member parliament. No one voted against the deal and seven members abstained.

As the only US base in Central Asia, the closure of the Manas base would have come as a major blow to American operations in Afghanistan.

But the deal falls short of US hopes of maintaining the base as a full military facility.

President Kurmanbek Bakiyev ordered the airbase to close shortly after Russia promised more than $2bn (£1.4bn) in aid, prompting speculation from US officials that Moscow had put pressure on Mr Bakiyev.

Kyrgyzstan allowed US forces to use the base in late 2001 when the Taliban were overthrown in Afghanistan.

The presence of a US base deep in territory that used to be part of the Soviet Union and borders China has been of concern to Beijing and Moscow, which also operates an airbase in Kyrgyzstan.

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