Spanish and French troops were ordered to leave an important air base in Kyrgyzstan for missions in Afghanistan this month after the Central Asian nations refused to renew permission for its use.

The deal was turned down by Kyrgyzstan in June and allowed the United States to continue using the Manas air base after Washington agreed to pay more to have access to the facilities.

In the meantime, a nameless diplomat said that Spain temporarily shifted the roughly 60 soldiers and two Hercules C-130 planes which were deployed by it at Manas to Herat in Afghanistan on October 13.

At the same time, a Spanish radio station said, France had drawn back its forces from the base near Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan capital. However, no official declaration has been made by Spain’s defence ministry up till now.

Manas air base is a key re-fueling point for aircrafts in NATO operations against Taliban terrorists in Afghanistan. Kyrgyzstan had cancelled the deal in March this year with Spain and France after it overturned the main agreement with the US on use of the base.

France and Spain are trying hard to settle new deal that would allow them to run their operations from the Manas air base again.