A draft request for proposals for the 35-billion-dollar contract is due to be issued "in the next few weeks," Lieutenant Colonel Karen Platt told AFP.

Defense firms would be invited to submit comments on the draft, with a final decision on the tanker deal due next year, she said.

The comments came after Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he had restored authority to the US Air Force to select the winner of the competition, which has pitted US aviation giant Boeing against Northrop Grumman and its partner, the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS).

Gates stripped the Air Force of its acquisition authority on the tanker project last year after the investigative arm of the US Congress -- the Government Accountability Office (GAO) -- found rival proposals were not evaluated fairly.

The contract for 179 refueling aircraft was initially awarded in February 2008 to Northrop and EADS, the parent company of Boeing's commercial rival Airbus.

But the deal was withdrawn in July last year after Boeing successfully appealed the decision to the GAO.

Gates acknowledged the bitter disputes and delays surrounding the effort to replacing the aging fleet of refueling tankers.

"I don't need to belabor the importance of getting this done soon and done right, and my office will continue to have a robust oversight role," Gates told the Air Force Association in a speech at National Harbor, Maryland.

"We are committed to the integrity of the selection process, and cannot afford the kind of letdowns, parochial squabbles, and corporate food-fights that have bedeviled this effort in the past," Gates said.

The Defense Department has tried for six years to replace the aircraft that refuel military planes in flight but the project has been plagued by scandal and discord over the bidding process.

Boeing said it was awaiting the release of the draft request for proposal and was "looking forward to working with the US Air Force on this very critical effort to replace America's KC-135 refueling fleet."

In a statement, Boeing said it "will be looking for clarity in how the service's requirements will be defined and prioritized."

The US giant asserted that whether the Air Force chooses its wide-body 767-based tanker or a 777-model tanker, the company's tanker options "feature maximum capability at a lower cost than our Airbus competitor."

EADS declined to comment on the announcement. In a September 8 interview in the French newspaper La Tribune, EADS chief executive Louis Gaullois said of the impending reopening of the tanker bidding: "Our objective is to be in the competition. We are totally determined to be in the running, unless it appears that the request for proposal is biased."

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