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The United States plans to withdraw thousands of troops from Germany, and has reached a deal with Turkey to reopen an important air base, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday. Defense Department officials quoted by the daily said they hope the agreement with Ankara would lead to a longer-term US military presence in the NATO ally's territory While the report does not mention the Turkish air base by name, it likely refers to Incirlik, in southern Turkey, which was used by US and British planes to patrol the no-fly zone over northern Iraq before the Gulf War in March. Ankara put the base off limits to allied planes on bombing missions over Iraq, but allowed its use for logistical purposes. As part of its announced redeployment of troops in Europe to better counter the threat of terrorism worldwide, the United States also plans to start withdrawing thousands of its toops from Germany, the Journal said. Senior Pentagon officials said that between 30,000 and 40,000 troops and support personnel of the First Armored Division and First Infantry Division would return to the United States in 2005 and 2006. Some US military facilities, especially those housing heavy-armored units, will disappear, while others such as Ramstein Air Base, in southern Germany, the US European Command headquarters in Stuttgart and a major US military hospital in Wandsbek near Hamburg would remain active, the officials said. The US troop withdrawal -- there are currently some 70,000 in Germany -- was announced by Doughals Feith, the Pentagon's top policy officials, in meetings with senior German officials in December. The changes in Germany and Turkey are part of US military plans to redeploy troops around the world to better counter the threat of terrorism. US defense officials said US military survey teams would soon visit desirable areas such as Eastern Europe to determine how much money they will have to invest to bring them up to US standards. The officials said Russia has voiced concerns that the planned US troop redeployment might violate Cold War-era treaties that cap US troop numbers in Europe, but US officials said the planned troop movements will avoid that. All rights reserved. Copyright 2003 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse. Quick Links
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