BUCHAREST, Romania (Reuters) -- Romania and the United States will sign a deal Tuesday to set up U.S. military bases in the Black Sea country, the Foreign Ministry says.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will sign the accord in a brief visit to Bucharest during a European trip which also includes stops in Germany and Brussels.
"Signing the Access Agreement is an essential step in consolidating the strategic partnership between Romania and the United States," the ministry said in a statement Friday.
Rice's visit comes amid mounting controversy in Europe over allegations that the CIA was running secret jails in Eastern Europe, possibly in Romania and Poland.
Washington has neither denied nor confirmed the allegations, while both Poland and Romania have repeatedly denied them.
Romania, which joined NATO in 2004, is grateful to Washington for supporting its bid to enter the Atlantic alliance, and has been a staunch ally of U.S. military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The ministry did not give the exact location of the bases, but President Traian Basescu has said possible sites included Babadag, close to the Danube delta, Mihail Kogalniceanu near the Black Sea and Fetesti, 200 km (125 miles) east of Bucharest.
U.S. soldiers used the Mihail Kogalniceanu airbase as a hub to send equipment and 7,000 combat troops into Iraq during the early stages of the invasion in 2003, and temporarily kept up to 3,500 American troops there.
Washington aims to pull about 70,000 troops out of Europe and Asia during the next decade. It will shift its European focus eastwards and will close Cold War bases in favor of small, flexible facilities closer to hot spots such as the Middle East.
The bases are seen as important to Romania's drive to secure more foreign investment to close the enormous wealth gap separating it from the other members of the European Union, which it hopes to join in 2007 or 2008.
Copyright 2005 Reuters.

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