The United States on Tuesday secured assurances from Kyrgyzstan that it could keep its base in the ex-Soviet Central Asian state as long as it was needed for U.S. military operations in Afghanistan. "I wouldn't pack your bags," U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told U.S. forces at the base in a buoyant comment after talks with the Kyrgyz leadership. But remarks by the Kyrgyz leadership, which has come under pressure on the issue from its old ally Russia, fell short of giving Washington an open-ended right to stay for as long as it wished. "The presence of the (U.S.) base fully depends on the situation in Afghanistan," acting Defense Minister Ismail Isakov told a joint news conference with Rumsfeld. "Today the minister (Rumsfeld) rightly noted that the situation in Afghanistan has not finally got back to normal," Isakov was quoted as saying by Reuters.
