Roh, elected on a wave of anti-American sentiment in December 2002, made the remarks at a ceremony to celebrate the armed forces' 57th anniversary.

"The recently announced military reform programme reflects our determination to achieve independence in defence capability. When completed, this reform will transform our armed forces into advanced, crack units," Roh said.

"It will be reborn as independent armed forces that fit its name and reality as well, especially by exercising our own wartime operational control," he added.

Under a controversial 1950 accord, operational control over South Korea's 680,000-strong armed forces would be exercised by the commander of US troops stationed in South Korea in case of an armed conflict.

The recovery of the wartime operational rights, handed to US military authorities during the Korean War, is seen by many South Koreans as a matter of national sovereignty.

South Korea last month unveiled a military reform programme highlighted by a 26 percent cut in troops to 500,000 by 2020 and a drastic increase in fire-power.

South Korea hosts 32,500 US troops. President George W. Bush has nominated the current commander of US Army forces in Europe to lead the US forces in Korea, the Pentagon said last month.

If confirmed by Congress, General Burwell Bell III will replace General Leon Laporte as head of the combined US-South Korean forces command.

Ties between the two allies have been strained over how to rein in North Korea from developing nuclear weapons and Roh's rejection of a joint plan for armed intervention in the event of instability there.

Other contentious bilateral issues are the sharing of defense costs and a plan for redeployment of US troops.

However, Roh stressed the alliance is stronger than ever, as shown in the two sides' joint efforts to resolve the dispute over North Korea's nuclear weapons program.

"The alliance will keep developing toward a comprehensive, dynamic and mutually beneficial one in the future," he said.

A senior defence ministry official said there were no immediate plans to discuss wartime control with the US side.

"This issue of wartime operational control should be adressed very carefully in consideration of the security situation and the two countries have not yet started talking about this issue," he said.

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