Rummy base shopping; Kyrgyzstan want $50 million a year for airbase

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Kyrgyzstan wants 50 million dollars a year from US for airbase
Tue Jan 17, 1:45 AM Et

BISHKEK (AFP) - Kyrgyzstan is seeking to sharply increase, to 50 million dollars (41.4 million euros) a year, the amount the United States pays for an airbase supporting its troops in Afghanistan, parliament speaker Omurbek Tekebayev said.

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Last year US forces were evicted from a base in another ex-Soviet republic in Central Asia, Uzbekistan, which was set up to support operations in Afghanistan after the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States.

The eviction has forced the Americans to rely more heavily on the base in Kyrgyzstan.

Top US officials including Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visited Kyrgystan and other Central Asian states several times last year, though Washington has denied it is looking for a new base in the region.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060117/pl_afp/kyrgyzstanusmilitary_060117063143