May 29, 2005 - 1:35 PM

General fired for saying Romania to host U.S. bases

BUCHAREST (Reuters) - A senior Romanian general has been removed from his job after telling the press Romania would provide U.S. forces with bases near the Black Sea, the Defense Ministry said on Sunday.

General Valeriu Nicut, head of the strategic planning division for the Romanian general staff, said on Wednesday after an international military conference on security issues that the U.S. would set up two military bases in Romania within one year.

"General Nicut is not the head of the strategic planning division any more, his situation is being assessed and he will be given another job within the army," Defense Ministry spokesman Cristinel Ghiga said.

"During Wednesday's press conference, General Nicut had no mandate to speak to the press on the issue of bases," he added. "There is no accord on this issue with the American state."

On Wednesday, Nicut had said the bases would not be big ones and that his country had offered a location at Kogalniceanu near the Black Sea and also a shooting range at Babadag, some 30 km (18 miles) south of Kogalniceanu.

New NATO members Romania and Bulgaria have been promoting airfields and bases in the hope of forming a new hub for U.S. forces as Washington pulls 70,000 troops out of central Europe and Asia in the next decade.

Earlier in May the Pentagon blasted a U.S. government commission, saying it may have revealed classified information in a report it posted on the Internet. A government official said the Pentagon was angry because the report identified Romania and Bulgaria as states whose bases U.S. troops may use.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld toured the Kogalniceanu base last year.