Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev said in Bishkek on Thursday that his country will raise the rent for the US air base at Manas by "several dozen times."

"The previous price set for the deployment of an air base for the coalition was purely symbolic," Bakiyev told reporters without elaborating.

The move came after neighbouring Uzbekistan evicted a U.S. military base earlier this year.

The United States established an air base at the Manas International Airport on the outskirts of Bishkek in December 2001 to support the anti-terrorism combat operations in Afghanistan.

Currently, there are about 1,500 US and NATO troops as well as some fighter planes stationed at the base.

Source: Xinhua