"It has not yet been clarified which exactly those bases will be, but we know there will be three of them," Svinarov told BTA news agency.

A US governmental delegation was expected to arrive in Bulgaria in the coming days to discuss the bases, the Bulgarian army said last week.

The stationing of US troops in Bulgaria is part of a broader US strategy of shifting troops based in Europe further east.

The aim is to move soldiers from positions chosen to cope with a possible Soviet invasion of Europe to a deployment better suited to the current US preoccupation with terrorism and conflicts in the Middle East.

In December, Svinarov had told AFP that a permanent deployment of US troops to Bulgaria would involve up to 3,000 people.

The following month, NATO's top commander in Europe, General James Jones, said in Sofia that he planned to recommend to the US Congress "four or five" military bases in Bulgaria.

Jones then visited three of the possible locations -- the Novo Selo base, in eastern Bulgaria, the Bezmer airbase near Yambol, to the southeast, and another in the Black Sea port city of Bourgas.

Novo Selo has been used for several years as a training centre for French and Italian army troops.

The Graf Ignatievo airbase, near Plovdiv in the south, the naval base at Atia and the airport of Sarafovo, in Bourgas, were other of the possible picks.

Sarafovo was used by the United States to station refueling aircraft during operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.

"During future talks we expect to decide precisely which ones the bases will be and under what conditions they will be requested by the US government," Svinarov said on Saturday.

The Bulgarian parliament has to decide when the actual deployment will take place, he added.

The decision, according to him, will be taken by the end of the year, BTA reported.

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