The United States will deploy a nuclear aircraft carrier in Japan in 2008, to replace the diesel-powered USS Kitty Hawk, the US Navy announced Thursday.

The Navy said in a statement that the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, one of its nine Nimitz-class carriers, will arrive in Yokosuka, Japan, in 2008 "as the forward deployed carrier in the Western Pacific."

The USS Kitty Hawk carrier, which was commissioned in 1961, is nearing the end of its service life and will return to the United States in 2008 to be decommissioned, the statement said.

The US Navy currently has 12 aircraft carriers, and the Kitty Hawk and the USS John F. Kennedy are the only conventionally powered ones. Kitty Hawk is the Navy's oldest ship in active service and the only US aircraft carrier permanently deployed abroad.

"The forward deployment of a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier ensures the ability of commander, US Pacific Fleet to fulfill the US government's commitment to the defense of Japan, and the maintenance of international peace and security in the Far East in support of the treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security," the statement said.

The ship rotation was part of the Navy's long-range effort to routinely replace older ships assigned to its forward deployed naval forces with newer or more capable platforms, and was "part of an ongoing effort to consider the nature of all forward deployed forces when looking at the unpredictable security environment in the Western Pacific," it said.

The carrier announcement followed an agreement between the two sides in Tokyo on Wednesday to relocate a US military base on the southern island of Okinawa.

Since 1964, US nuclear-powered warships have visited Japanese ports more than 1,200 times. The Navy said the United States has provided firm commitments to Japan regarding the safe use of Japanese ports by US nuclear powered warships and confirmed that the nuclear carrier would observe strictly all safety precautions and procedures.

Source: Xinhua