The departure of the carriers USS Kitty Hawk and USS Constellation will still leave one carrier and its support group in the Gulf, and two others in the eastern Mediterranean.

"The USS Kitty Hawk will be leaving this week towards home and the Connie will follow shortly after," said the defense official, who asked not to be identified.

Navy Vice Admiral Timothy Keating, the commander of naval forces in the region, had said on Saturday that some of the carriers would be pulled out and sent home as the demand for air power winds down over Iraq.

The air force also has begun ordering units home.

F-117 stealth fighters are returning to their home base in New Mexico later this week, the air force has said.

"Senior leaders are releasing forces from the area as the missions are completed," said Brigdier General Jim Hunt, the commander of the 49th Fighter Wing at Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico.

The Kitty Hawk, which arrived in the Gulf in February as part of a massive US military buildup against Iraq, will head back to its homeport in Yokosuka, Japan, the defense official said.

A cruiser, a destroyer and two support ships will go with the carrier, the official said.

The Constellation, which deployed in November as part of a scheduled rotation in the Gulf, will be going back to its homeport in San Diego, California. It has about a dozen warships in its battle groups.

Staying beyind is the USS Nimitz which just replaced the USS Abraham Lincoln, which left the Gulf last week on the voyage home after 10 months at sea.

The USS Harry Truman and the USS Theodore Roosevelt are in the eastern Mediterranean, but Keating said the navy was working on a plan to bring back one of the two.

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