"The Nato center of activities is now moving to Eastern Europe," US general James Jones said during a visit to the Romanian capital.
"The US must reconsider their strategy in light of the new allies," he told reporters in a reference to the need to redeploy Nato - mainly US - military bases away from Western Europe.
The head of Nato's military forces did not specify any timing or prospective sites for a redeployment, saying this type of decision must be taken "together with all Nato members".
Nato is expected to welcome Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia into its military alliance by the time its next summit is held in May 2004.
Jones's Romanian hosts have already handed over to Nato a list of sites available for such redeployment on their own territory.
They include Constanta, a major seaport on the Black Sea, which the US army has already been using for logistics during the war on Iraq, and several airports.
A shift to eastern Europe would represent a major turnaround in Nato's 53-year history.
Nato bases have been concentrated in Western Europe as part of the Cold War effort to contain communism.
Since the collapse of communism in the early 1990s, eastern European countries have been keen to join the US-dominated alliance as a safeguard vis-
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