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 President George W. Bush was expected to address the changes in a speech Monday.

"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," rathern 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the president will announce that he supports the Defense Department reorganization which would see up to 70,000 troops withdrawn from Europe and Asia.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.

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.

Rumsfeld spoke to reporters as he flew back to Washington from St. Petersburg, where he held two days of talks with Ivanov on a wide range of subjects, including the new global military posture.

The secretary said the plans should not create problems with Russia, which bristled last year over NATO's expansion to include the Baltics and former Soviet bloc east European countries.

Rumsfeld said Russia was most sensitive about the positioning of forces near its northern borders.

"In fact, we are reducing our forces in the northern part of Europe. The movement is to go not towards the Baltics, it would go south and to the United States and elsewhere. So I don't see any issue there at all," he said.

Asked whether a US military presence in former Soviet republics would give rise to tensions with Russia, Rumsfeld said, "We have no plans for permanent bases in those areas."

"The Russian government understands fully the value and the logic of what we have been doing in our relationships with the former Soviet republics with respect to the global war on terrorism, with respect to what's going on in Afghanistan and Iraq," he said.

"They are part of the global war on terror so there are no issues on those kinds of things," he said.

He said the United States will have "forward operating locations" in some of the former Soviet republics, but they will not be large, permanent structures like the big Cold War-era bases in Germany.

"Usually they are places where you have alternative landing sites for aircraft in difficulties," he said. "We have some of those in the former Soviet republics."

"And you might have forward operating locations where you rotate people in and out, or where you use them for air refueling," he said.

"It gives you flexibility to do a lot of things," he said.

In prosecuting its war against the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2001, the US military opened a supply corridor from Europe to Central Asia by gaining access for the first time to a network of air bases in former Soviet republics.

Rumsfeld visited two former Soviet republics -- Ukraine and Azerbaijan -- on a weeklong trip that also took him to Afghanistan.

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