Buried in the US military's budget submission to Congress this month was a little-noticed request for $200m (€186m, £127m) to help train and equip forces of foreign countries. Compared with other items in the Pentagon's $380bn budget, the figure is minimal, close to the cost of a single new F/A-22 tactical fighter.

But the request is a sign of things to come. It is part of a growing effort by senior defence officials to use the US military in a growing number of foreign countries, sending military advisers and combat troops to fight alongside foreign forces in numbers unseen since the cold war.

From the Pankisi Gorge in the former Soviet republic of Georgia to the so-called "tri-border area" joining Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay, thousands of US troops, most of them special operations forces, have been dispersed around the globe, in the words of the Bush administration, "to help those who have joined the fight" against terrorism.

Some of the expanded footprint of the US military presence is a legacy of the pre-September 11 world, where the Clinton administration sent troops on a variety of peacekeeping missions and anti-drugs efforts.

In Bosnia, for example, President George W. Bush has kept 3,500 troops as part of Nato's stabilisation force even after vowing to withdraw them earlier in his administration. Part of the reason for the renewed commitment to the region, officials have said, is their ability to conduct anti-terrorist operations within Bosnia.

The administration has also expanded the military presence in Colombia, where US troops are training the Colombian army in counterterrorism to protect critical infrastructures such as the Cano Limon pipeline. The US presence will soon grow, however, with plans this year to dispatch "operations and intelligence planning assistance teams" to selected units of the Colombian military fighting anti-government guerrillas.

But the most aggressive moves have come in regions where the US believes terrorists affiliated with al-Qaeda are finding safe havens. The most recent example is the decision by the Pentagon last week to send another 1,750 US troops to the Philippines to assist their army's war with the Abu Sayyaf group.

Last year more than 1,300 US personnel, including 160 special operations advisers, spent six months training 25 field companies of the Philippine armed forces and provided them with military transport aircraft, 30,000 assault rifles, two coastguard cutters and eight Huey helicopters.

The Pentagon has made similar plans in Djibouti, where it has based a new joint task force to monitor terrorist movements in the Horn of Africa. Currently stationed off Djibouti on the USS Mount Whitney, approximately 1,300 troops will be eventually moved to Camp Lemonier, a base being upgraded by advance forces.

The task force will oversee military-to-military relations with seven countries in the region, including Yemen, where a separate contingent of US forces has been active for months. US special forces trained 200 Yemeni army troops in counterterrorism techniques last year, and the Pentagon has set up an office of defence co-operation that will work on the training and equipping of Yemen's military.

US special operations forces have been in Georgia since last April, when the Tbilisi government asked for assistance to fight guerrillas believed to be associated with Islamic extremist groups and Chechen rebels. Training has already been completed for senior military staff and they have begun for four battalions and one armoured company that will go after the rebel groups based in the Pankisi Gorge.

The stepped-up global presence includes about 9,000 military and civilian personnel who remain in Afghanistan.

Philippines defers joint exercises with US for soldiers pursuing Abu Sayyaf rebels

The Philippines said yesterday it would defer joint military exercises with the US in the southernmost island of Sulu until the two allies agreed on new terms of reference, reports Roel Landingin in Manila. Angelo Reyes, the Philippine defence secretary, on his way to meet Donald Rumsfeld, his US counterpart, tomorrow, said American troops could not take part in offensive military operations in the Philippines because that would contravene the constitution.

About 1,700 US soldiers are to train and assist Filipino troops fighting remnants of the Abu Sayyaf rebel force. The new exercises, dubbed Balikatan 03-1, or "shoulder-to-shoulder", are scheduled to begin next month. The guerrillas fled to Sulu last year, driven by sustained US-supported campaigns on nearby Basilan island.

However, a Pentagon statement last week that suggested American troops would take a more active role in fighting the Islamic guerrilla force has stirred opposition to the exercises in Manila. That prompted President Gloria Macapagal to seek more explicit guarantees from the US that American forces would not take an offensive role.

"We would rather hold deployment in connection with Balikatan 03-1 until final agreement on their exact size and shape is reached," Mr Reyes said. "We don't envision US forces . . calling the shots."

See Also: US BASES AROUND THE WORLD,

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