Spanish and French troops leave Kyrgyzstan base

BISHKEK (Reuters) - French and Spanish troops have left Kyrgyzstan's Manas air base, a staging post for U.S.-led operations in Afghanistan, but may return, a Kyrgyz government source and French and Spanish officials said on Monday.

Ex-Soviet Kyrgyzstan cancelled deals with France and Spain in March, when it overturned a similar agreement with the United States on use of the base. Kyrgyzstan later allowed U.S. troops to stay in exchange for higher rent.

"There was a bilateral Franco-Kyrgyz agreement on the subject which was ended by the Kyrgyz and so both our troops and equipment left this base at the beginning of October," a French diplomat said.

Spain has also withdrawn its personnel of about 60 mainly support staff from the base, a Spanish Defence Ministry official said, adding there was a possibility they might be reassigned to Tajikistan. Meanwhile, the Spanish are in Herat in Afghanistan, the official said.

The Manas base, which serves as a refuelling point for aircraft used in Afghanistan, is important to Washington and its NATO allies because supply routes through Pakistan have been attacked by militants.

The French diplomat said France still had a small number of troops on the base and two refuelling planes.

France has made a proposal that it hopes would allow it to return to the base but it still waiting for a response from the Kyrgyz authorities, the diplomat said.

The head of Kyrgyzstan's parliamentary committee for international affairs said on Oct. 5, there had been a decision to approve draft agreements with France and Spain to allow troops to return to the base.

"An agreement (with France and Spain) has not been reached so far, (but) further talks are not ruled out," said a senior Kyrgyz government official, who asked not to be named due to the sensitivity of the issue.