WASHINGTON, Aug 16 (AFP) - President George W. Bush was on Monday to announce the withdrawal of up to 100,000 US troops from Europe and Asia as part of a major defense reorganization, officials said.
"This initiative will strengthen our ability to address threats abroad, improve our capability to protect America and our allies, and will ease some of the burden on our uniformed military members and their families," an administration official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Sunday that the United States planned to shift US troops out of Germany and northern Europe as part of a repositioning of US forces around the world to make them more responsive to new threats.
Rumsfeld, who briefed Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov on the plans over the weekend, did not disclose the size of the reduction in US forces in Europe but Bush was expected to address the changes in a speech Monday.
Bush was scheduled to address a Veterans of Foreign Wars Convention in Cincinnati, Ohio at 11:00 am (1500 GMT).
"There will be a shift from Germany, and we`ve talked to Germany about that, and some numbers," Rumsfeld said. "They are doing the same thing. They also are readjusting their forces, and they understand that."
The United States will continue to have bases in Germany, he said. But as it shifts its military presence it wants to rotate US-based troops through a network of lightly manned "forward operating locations," rather than permanently base them abroad, he said.
It has been long known that the new US force posture would likely lead to a reduction in the estimated 70,000 US troops in Germany, but this was the first time Rumsfeld has publicly confirmed it.
The New York Times reported Sunday that the president will announce that he supports the Defense Department reorganization which would see up to 70,000 troops withdrawn from Europe and Asia.
He will also say that it could affect an additional 100,000 military support staff and family members in the regions, the report said quoting an administration official.
Administration officials speaking on condition of anonymity told AFP that tens of thousands of troops would come home to bases in the United States from Germany, South Korea and other countries.
The United States has about 100,000 troops deployed in Europe and about the same number in Asia, outside Iraq and Afghanistan. There are about 70,000 troops in Germany, 37,500 in South Korea and 48,000 in Japan.
Rumsfeld described the force realignment as "ideas" that have been discussed with allies and members of Congress, but whose specifics must still be negotiated with individual countries that might be involved.
He said it may take four to six years to accomplish.
"But the principal characteristic for all them taken together are that we want to increase the usability of our forces, that we will very likely end up with more forces back in the United States, and that we will be looking for flexibility and relationships so that we can rotate forces in, and have exercises with various countries," he said.
The restructuring is part of a years-long process to adapt the military to post-Cold War threats, leading lawmakers said Sunday.
"This is a decision that`s been under review by the secretary of defense for about three or four years," Senator John Warner, the Virginia Republican who heads the armed services committee, told CNN.
"The vestiges, the remnants of the Cold War are still present in a lot of our military installations in Europe, and it`s time to lighten up our military equipment in Europe, get the heavy stuff back here so it can be redeployed to where it might be needed," he said.