WASHINGTON, May 12 (Xinhuanet) -- US Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Thursday that the scope of the new round of domestic base closures would be smaller than foreseen earlier due to the need to accommodate military forces returning home from Europe. 

    "The department is recommending fewer major base closures than had earlier been anticipated, due in part to the return of tens ofthousands of troops through our global posture review, " Rumsfeld said at a Pentagon news conference. "And also due to decisions to reduce leased space by moving activities from leased space into owned facilities."

    Rumsfeld said the new estimate was that domestic bases have only 5 percent to 10 percent more space than they need, compared with his earlier estimate of 20 to 25 percent overcapacity.

    The Pentagon is slated to submit its list of recommended base closures and realignments to the nine-member Base Realignment and Closure Commission on Friday. The commission would review the listand made recommendations to President George W. Bush by September.

    Rumsfeld said if his list of recommendations was approved, thena total of 48.8 billion dollars would be saved over the coming 20 years, or a recurring annual savings of 5.5 billion dollars.

    The Pentagon said the base closures and realignments were necessary to reduce costs, promote flexibility and greater integration of training among military services.

    The Pentagon has conducted four rounds of base realignments andclosures, in 1988, 1991, 1993 and 1995 respectively, which broughtabout 97 major closures, 55 major realignments and 235 minor actions. Enditem