US plans to cut forces in Europe, Asia

The United States plans to bring home 70,000 troops from Europe and Asia in a major realignment of American presence across the globe, US officials said Saturday.

President George W. Bush is expected to announced the move, which would also bring home 100,000 of military family members and support personnel, in a speech on Monday to the 2.6 million-member Veterans of Foreign Wars in Cincinnati, Ohio, the officials said on condition of anonymity.

The changes would have no effect on the about 150,000 US forcesin Iraq and Afghanistan.

The decision was meant to strengthen the troops' ability to respond to threats overseas, the officials said.

The Washington Post reported on Saturday that Bush would announced to pull 70,000 to 100,000 troops out of Europe and Asia in the first major reconfiguration of overseas deployments by the Untied States since the end of the Cold War.

Two-thirds of the troops would come from Europe, most of them Army soldiers in Germany, and most of the troops would be reassigned to bases in the United States, the report said.

Currently there are more than 100,000 American troops in Europe,including about 70,000 in Germany, and another 100,000 in the Asia-Pacific region.

Source: Xinhua