Oversight of air missions to Iraq and the Middle East will be transferred this week from Prince Sultan Air Base near Riyadh, Saudi Arabia to Al Udeid Air base in Qatar, the report said.

President George W. Bush and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld have not decided whether to make the move permanent, it said.

"Whether we'll stay there or not -- nor sure," General Tommy Franks, head of US Central Command, told the paper.

"But we do know that since we have it, we want to be able to run some operations out of it," Franks said, referring to a headquarters the Pentagon built at Al Udeid a year ago.

US officials stressed that the move does not mean an end to military relations with Saudi Arabia.

"We are not leaving Saudi Arabia," a Bush administration official was quoted as saying.

The Pentagon will use its two-year-old air command center at Prince Sultan Air Base to oversee military exercises, and could shift air operations back there in a crisis, the report said.

Another high official of the US Central Command said the move reflected scaled-back capacity needs.

"There's a convenience in the fact we're adjusting the size," Major General Victor Renuart was quoted as saying. "You don't need a CAOC (Combat Air Operations Center) designed to fly 3,000 missions if you're only flying a few hundred."

As Rumsfeld kicked off a Gulf tour Sunday to review military commitments following the Iraq war, Franks said a "re-arrangement" of US forces in the region was likely now that Saddam Hussein has been ousted from Iraq.

"There is an understanding that since the regime in Iraq has gone, since there will no longer be a need for Operation Northern Watch and Southern Watch and so forth in the days and months ahead there will likely be a re-arrangement of the footprint," Franks told a press conference at Abu Dhabi airport.

The Central Command general added, however, that he did not know if the changes would result in a reduction of US forces in the region.

Operation Southern Watch and Northern Watch had enforced flight restrictions on Iraqi aircraft following the 1991 Gulf War.

Saudi Arabia, which has hosted US forces since the 1991 Gulf war despite strong domestic opposition, was expected to seek a sharp reduction, if not outright withdrawal, of US forces there now Iraq no longer poses a threat.

SPACE.WIRE