ALMA ATA, April 14 (Xinhuanet) -- Kyrgyzstan's acting President Kurmanbek Bakiyev said Thursday the country had no plan to station US AWACS surveillance planes on its soil, according to reports reaching here from Kyrgyz capital Bishkek.

    Bakiyev told a press conference after a meeting with US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, there had been no negotiations during the talks over stationing US AWACS surveillance planes at the Manas international airport.

    "There's no need to add to the military presence," he said. "The situation is fully under the control of the Kyrgyz government."

    Bakiyev said they discussed issues on political and economic cooperation between the two countries, the situation in central Asia and the fight against terrorism. He pledged to fully implement all the bilateral accords with the United States and agreements between the two countries in multilateral frameworks.

    Rumsfeld, for his part, said the US would further promote its cooperation with Kyrgyzstan in anti-terrorism and peace-keeping efforts in Afghanistan.

    Washington will continue to provide Kyrgyzstan with necessary technical assistance in military field, he said.

    The defense chief said recent changes in the country would not harm the strategic balance in central Asia.

    At the beginning of the year, the US and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) proposed to station the highly sophisticated AWACS planes outside Bishkek and US ambassador to Kyrgyzstan made a formal request shortly afterward.

    The Kyrgyz Foreign Ministry denied the request, saying it had gone beyond the purpose of the peace-keeping and humanitarian assistance mission in Afghanistan by the international anti-terrorist alliance.

    The US-led anti-terrorist alliance set up an airbase at the endof 2001 at the Manas international airport outside Bishkek, where the US airforce stations. Enditem