THE commander of the United States European command and Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, General James Jones, said that the US was ready to start negotiations with the new NATO members, Bulgaria and Romania, on setting up US military bases on their territories.
In a report to a US house of representatives committee, Jones said that US officers had made several visits to the two countries and it was time for the start of official negotiations.
He said that the establishing of these bases was a part of the plan for restructuring of US overseas military forces.
Jones said that the US would want to have free access to their forces in Bulgaria and Romania and to able to deploy them to points of military conflict.
Previously the US has had  problems with countries not letting them use their bases for military operations and in directly deploying troops to war zones. The most recent example was the Turkish base Incerlik, which the US could not use for operations against Iraq.
According to Jones, Bulgaria and Romania would not create such problems. He described them as very willing to co-operate.
Meanwhile, NATO has announced plans to invest nearly 59 million euro in the modernisation of the Graf Ignatievo and Bezmer military airfields and to use them as bases for, respectively, tactical fighter aircraft, and transport and refuelling aircraft.