ALMA-ATA, Nov. 11 (Xinhuanet) -- Former Kyrgyz Foreign Minister Askar Aytmatov said Friday that the United States and NATO had previously required to deploy AWACS surveillance spy planes in Kyrgyzstan, which was rejected by the Kyrgyz government.

    The Kyrgyz Foreign Ministry still keeps the note submitted by the US embassy as well as a letter from NATO to the Kyrgyz government, asking to deploy the spy planes, Aytmatov told a press conference in Bishkek, capital of Kyrgyzstan.

    It was misunderstandable that a former US ambassador to Kyrgyzstan had fully denied having made such a requirement, he noted.

    Washington and NATO had twice asked -- between February and April this year -- to deploy AWACS surveillance spy planes in Kyrgyzstan, but all the requests were rejected by the Kyrgyz government, the Kyrgyz media reported.

    The Kyrgyz government said the deployment of the US spy planes went beyond the purposes and tasks of the international anti-terrorism alliance's peacekeeping mission and humanitarian assistance.

    Besides, Kyrgyzstan is a member of the Collective Security Treaty Organization and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, and the deployment of the US spy planes would also violate the obligations of Kyrgyzstan in the two organizations, said the Kyrgyz government.

    The United States established an air base at the Manas International Airport on the outskirts of Bishkek in December 2001to support the anti-terrorism combat operations in nearby Afghanistan. Currently, there are about 1,500 US and NATO troops as well as some fighter planes stationed at the base. Enditem