Kyrgyzstan says it's open to talks on US troops

BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan-Kyrgyzstan is willing to negotiate a new deal allowing American troops to operate there despite its recent decision to shut a U.S. air base essential to the war in Afghanistan, the president's spokesman said Thursday.The Central Asian nation last month ordered the United States to vacate the Manas air base within six months.President Kurmanbek Bakiyev announced the closure shortly after Russia pledged $2.15 billion in aid and loans for impoverished former Soviet nation.Presidential spokesman Almaz Turdumamatov said the decision on Manas would not be changed but indicated that a separate arrangement allowing U.S. troops in the country could be negotiated."The decision on the base is final and by this year every last American soldier will have left the territory of Kyrgyzstan," he said."Notwithstanding, the doors for negotiation with the United States are open and we are prepared to consider a new agreement."Bakiyev's office also quoted him as saying that Kyrgyzstan is ready to provide a corridor for transit of non-lethal U.S. military supplies headed for nearby Afghanistan. Its neighbors Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan have also agreed to such transit.Kyrgyzstan does not border Afghanistan and is not the most direct route for U.S. supplies to Afghanistan by land via Russia and Central Asia. The transit corridor offer appeared to be an olive branch in the wake of the base closure decision, but it was unclear how much further Kyrgyzstan would be willing to go beyond that.The base is a transit point for 15,000 troops and 500 tons of cargo each month to and from Afghanistan. Bakiyev had complained that the United States ignored repeated demands for an increase on the $17.4 million paid in annual rent for the base. The move to revoke the basing agreement with the United States was later overwhelmingly backed by parliament and signed into law...
By LEILA SARALAYEVA, Associated Press Writer
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090305/ap_on_re_as/as_kyrgyzstan_us_base
As in the days of Noah...