Kyrgyz Parliament To Vote On US Base Closure

`There will be a parliament session tomorrow and this question will be settled,` Sarbayev told the assembly.

Kyrgyzstan's parliament will vote on Thursday on closing a U.S. air base in the Central Asian state, complicating Washington's efforts to supply its forces fighting in Afghanistan.

Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev announced after talks with traditional ally Russia this month that he wanted to close the Manas air base outside the capital Bishkek because Washington had refused to pay more rent.

Parliament is expected to support Bakiyev's decision because his Ak Zhol party dominates the assembly. U.S. forces will then have six months to leave and find another staging post in a region where Washington vies for influence with Russia.

Foreign Minister Kadyrbek Sarbayev said on Wednesday the impoverished former Soviet republic had not received any new proposals on the base from the United States.

"There will be a parliament session tomorrow and this question will be settled," Sarbayev told the assembly.

Ibragim Zhunusov, a parliament deputy, said: "Of course we will vote to cancel the agreement."

Washington is looking for alternative supply routes to landlocked Afghanistan because routes through Pakistan have become increasingly vulnerable to militant attacks.

Washington sent troops to Afghanistan after the attacks on the United States on Sept. 11, 2001. They toppled the Taliban leadership for giving sanctuary to al Qaeda leaders responsible for the attacks.

U.S. President Barack Obama has ordered 17,000 more troops to Afghanistan to tackle an intensifying Taliban insurgency. This will take U.S. troop numbers to about 55,000, and 30,000 troops from 40 other mostly NATO countries are also in Afghanistan.

Bakiyev, who needs parliamentary approval to shut the air base, announced the closure plans after accepting more than $2 billion in Russian aid and credit.

General David Petraeus, commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan and Iraq, visited Kyrgyzstan's neighbour Uzbekistan on Tuesday to try to secure alternative supply routes.

Uzbekistan, also a former Soviet republic, hosted a U.S. air base until it evicted the U.S. troops in 2005 in a row over a government crackdown on protesters in the town of Andizhan.