Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbayev met US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld today and announced his country was increasing its limited military support for the war in Afghanistan.
Defense Minister General Mukhtar Altynbayev said after the talks that Kazakhstan planned to sign a memorandum with Washington to provide "emergency use" for US and western warplanes at three airfields in this central Asia republic sprawling from China to the Caspian Sea.
He said the country would also send three military officers to the US military's Central Command headquarters in Tampa, Florida, joining representatives of some 30 nations coordinating efforts in a war on terror sparked by September attacks on the United States.
The former Soviet republic has not provided troops or basing rights for western warplanes in the war.
But US defense officials, traveling with Mr Rumsfeld as he wound up a whirlwind tour of four Central Asian republics, said the proposal would allow warplanes facing emergencies or avoiding bad weather to land at Almaty in southern Kazakhstan and two others - Shymkent and Lugovaya.
