Kyrgyzstan Wants Military Role to End at U.S. Base BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan - One of Kyrgyzstan's top defense officials told Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta on Tuesday that a crucial United States air base here should have "no military mission" when its lease expires a little more than two years from now. The request creates a potential hurdle to American plans to withdraw from Afghanistan in 2014. The base, officially called a transit center, is at the Manas airport close to the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek, and has been a vital transit and supply hub for troops and materiel moving in and out of Afghanistan. It is the only such base that American forces have in Central Asia. The comments by the Kyrgyz official - Busurmankul Tabaldiev, the secretary of the country's defense council - echo those of Kyrgyzstan's new president, Almazbek Atambayev. In one of his first statements after his election on Oct. 30, Mr. Atambayev said he would seek to close the base when the lease runs out in July 2014. Mr. Tabaldiev told Mr. Panetta on Tuesday in a meeting here that the base should be converted to strictly civilian commercial use. The base has been the subject of contention for some time. In 2009, Kyrgyz leaders threatened to shut down the base; Pentagon and State Department officials concluded that the threat was the product of pressure from Russia to push back the American presence and extend its own influence in the region, most of which was part of the Soviet Union. The 2009 dispute was resolved when the United States agreed to pay higher rent for the base, which is now $60 million a year. Reporters were removed from the meeting on Tuesday between Mr. Panetta and the Kyrgyz defense officials before Mr. Panetta responded directly to their threat to end the military mission at the base. American defense officials traveling with Mr. Panetta said afterward that he had told the Kyrgyz officials that he had not come to negotiate. The Americans said the meeting was meant more as an opening session, effectively to tell Kyrgyz leaders not to say no now. In remarks that reporters heard, Mr. Panetta told the Kyrgyz defense officials, "I would ask that you convey my thanks to the president for his continued support for the transit center at Manas." He added, "I am also here to commend Kyrgyzstan for the very successful transition through the democratic process." Closing the base to the American military after the lease runs out in July 2014 - when tens of thousands of United States troops are expected to be flowing out of Afghanistan under current plans - would create logistical headaches for the Pentagon. Defense officials said it might be possible to fly troops home to the United States from Afghanistan nonstop using commercial jets and an air route over the North Pole. But doing so, they said, would be more expensive and potentially less secure than the current system, which uses military aircraft to carry troops between Afghanistan and Manas, and commercial jets for the rest of the journey.