INCREASING the number of American military personnel in Australia through more naval visits and training exercises will be the subject of a meeting between defence bureaucrats from the United States and Australia in Canberra next week.
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The meeting was confirmed by one of the US's most powerful military commanders, the head of the US Pacific Command, Admiral Bob Willard.
The Pacific Command, which covers 36 countries and about half of the world from the US west coast, comprises about 330,000 troops and civilian staff.
Admiral Willard is in Australia this week to tour defence bases that US forces could be given access to, including the Bradshaw Field Training Area in the Northern Territory and HMAS Stirling naval base on Garden Island in Western Australia.
The possibility of increased US troop presence in Australia was publicly revealed after last month's AUSMIN defence and foreign policy talks between the US and Australia in Melbourne.
While the politically controversial idea of the US building military bases on Australian soil was avoided, the idea of giving the US access to existing Australian installations was mooted.
The move is part of a ''global posture review'' by the US defence forces, announced by the US Defence Secretary, Robert Gates. ''We agreed to create a bilateral force posture working group to begin developing options for defence co-operation on Australian soil,'' he said last month.
Admiral Willard is here at the invitation of the Chief of the Defence Force, Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston. Yesterday he visited defence leaders in Canberra and today he will be in the Northern Territory before a trip to Perth tomorrow.
Admiral Willard also discussed the importance of the ''cybersphere'' - nominated as a fifth sphere of warfare by the US - in relation to the strategic struggle between the US and China.
''[Cyber is] a dimension of warfare that they openly advocate,'' he said.
He said the Chinese army placed great emphasis on dominating the information domain, as a counter to US superiority in the land, sea, air and space.
''There [should be] great emphasis on … our defence activities to likewise have the ability to dominate [cyberspace],'' he said.
