The bases, currently in use by US forces mopping up operations in Iraq, are at the international airport outside Baghdad; at Tallil near Nasiriyah in the south; at H1, an isolated airstrip in Iraq's western desert; and at the Bashur air field in the north, it said.

Although US forces will withdraw in coming months and turn control of Iraq over to its new government, Pentagon officials "expect to gain access to the bases in the event of some future crisis," the Times said, quoting US military officials.

The US military presence would be felt in neighboring Syria and together with US troops in Afghanistan would virtually surround Iran, the Times noted.

"There will be some kind of a long-term defense relationship with a new Iraq, similar to Afghanistan," an administration official told the paper. "The scope of that has yet to be defined."

At the same time the administration is quietly reducing the US military presence in the region, aware that it could stoke resentment, notably at Incirlik air base in Turkey. It is likely to do the same in Saudi Arabia, officials said.

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