"Given the nature of warfare today, the technology we have and the skill of our fighting forces, the old structure of coast and navy bases has to be reevaluated, is being reevaluated not just here in Asia but also in Europe," visiting US Senate armed services panel member Jack Reed told reporters here.

"This is a constant process," said Reed, a Democrat who travelled with Senator Chuck Hagel to Manila for talks with Philippine President Gloria Arroyo, a key US ally in Southeast Asia, en route to Singapore for an anti-terrorism conference.

Republican Hagel, a member of three Senate panels including one on intelligence, said "certainly, we have to constantly assess our force structure and the deployment of that structure" especially amid increasing terrorism threats.

Both senators however, said they were not aware of specific plans to realign US troops in Asia.

The Los Angeles Times reported Thursday on a plan for a repositioning of US forces that could include moving 15,000 of the 20,000 Marines now in Okinawa, Japan to bases in Australia and an increased US military presence in Singapore and Malaysia.

The report, which cited US defense officials, said the United States is also considering seeking agreements to base navy ships in Vietnam and US ground forces in the Philippines.

Sub-tropical Okinawa's regional government on Friday sought clarification of the report and was told by a Pentagon press officer that "it is being considered but is not a final decision", an official said.

From the end of World War II until 1972, Okinawa was under US military occupation. It still hosts two-thirds of the 47,000-strong US troops stationed in Japan under bilateral accords.

Asked whether there was a need for increased US military presence in Southeast Asia amid increasing terrorism threats, Reed said increased collaboration between Washington and the region was vital.

"I think there is an increased need for cooperation among all the governments in this region and the United States -- first on intelligence sharing, second on increasing the skill of the fighting forces of countries in this part of the world."

"Collaboration is one of the most important things that we can do at the moment," Reed said.

In Southeast Asia, the most high-profile US military presence in recent times has been in the Philippines, where several hundred American troops have been taking turns over the last two years to train local soldiers battle the Muslim Abu Sayyaf kidnap-for-ransom group.

At present Washington has six military hubs in the Asia-Pacific region but they are all oriented towards Northeast Asia, where the US forces are positioned for a potential conflict in the Korean peninsula.

The US has no permanent military base in Southeast Asia since the closing of its Clark and Subic bases in the Philippines in 1992.

Since the closure of the nearly 100-year-old bases, Washington has been using Singapore as a logistics hub for warships moving from the Pacific Ocean to the Persian Gulf.

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