Kyrgyzstan assured the United States on Tuesday it could keep its air base in the former Soviet Central Asian state, a relief to Washington which is being ejected from nearby Uzbekistan, according to Reuters. President Kurmanbek Bakiyev said at a joint news conference with visiting Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that the 1,000 troops could stay as long as they were needed to fly supply missions into Afghanistan in the fight against the Taliban. The United States won that pledge -- also formalized in a joint statement -- after tough negotiations that needed a one-on-one meeting between Rice and the president to seal the commitment, U.S. officials said. In return, the United States offered to give a clearer accounting of the roughly $50 million it gives to Kyrgyzstan for the base each year, a senior State Department official involved in the talks said.
