In Kuwait, Panetta Affirms U.S. Commitment to Middle East KUWAIT - Despite Washington's renewed focus on the Asia-Pacific region, the United States remains fully committed to deterring security threats in the Persian Gulf and across the Middle East, Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta said as he began an official visit Tuesday to Kuwait. "Let me assure you that the United States is strong enough that we can maintain a strong presence in the Middle East as well as in the Pacific," Mr. Panetta told reporters aboard his plane en route to Kuwait. Mr. Panetta also said there was no fresh intelligence indicating that Syria was moving further ahead with preparations to use chemical weapons as a new line of attack in Syria's 21-month-old uprising. "At this point the intelligence has really kind of leveled off," Mr. Panetta said. We haven't seen anything new indicating any aggressive steps to move forward in that way. Mr. Panetta gave no other details on what Syria had or had not done to prepare for the possible use of chemical weapons. "Our concern is that if they feel like the regime is threatened with collapse, they might resort to these kinds of weapons," he said. Mr. Panetta repeated that the United States and other nations had vigorously warned the government of President Bashar al-Assad about its chemical weapons arsenal. The Defense Department today deploys about 50,000 military personnel in the Persian Gulf region, aboard warships and at bases, with 13,500 here in Kuwait, Mr. Panetta noted. Even so, the United States will have only one aircraft carrier in the Middle East for the next two months or so while a second carrier to be assigned to the region completes maintenance. "I am very confident that we're going to be able to maintain the ships and forces we need in order to respond to any contingency," Mr. Panetta said. Our presence in Kuwait and throughout the gulf helps enhance the capabilities of partner nations, deters aggression and helps ensure that we're better able to respond to crises in the region. Mr. Panetta acknowledged that this regional security effort might require a more flexible approach to managing American warships, warplanes and personnel assigned to the Persian Gulf region. For example, the Navy is rushing more of the newest unmanned mine-clearing technology to the Persian Gulf while creating two new sets of crews to operate minesweepers in the region. The plans to increase deployments of the latest generation of robotic equipment to detect and remotely detonate mines are a way to continue the countermine ability in waters off Iran into next year and beyond, when the number of minesweeping ships on patrol may be reduced.