WASHINGTON, July 5 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - The United States military wants to expand its presence in Africa, where it sees potential havens for what it calls "terror" groups, according to press reports Saturday, July 5.

The Pentagon is seeking to enhance ties with allies like Morocco and Tunisia, gain long-term access to bases in Mali and Algeria and build on aircraft refueling agreements with Senegal and Uganda, the New York Times reported.

U.S. President George W. Bush leaves Monday, July 7, on a whirlwind African trip with stops in Senegal, South Africa, Botswana, Uganda and Nigeria.

The American military's plans for Africa pre-date Bush's trip and reflect a wider Pentagon review of where to position U.S. forces throughout the world, according to the Times.

Earlier this year, the commander of a U.S. task force in the Horn of Africa said arrangements have been worked out with governments in the region so that U.S. forces can respond swiftly to fleeting "terrorist" targets.

Some of the initiatives are still at the proposal stage while others are already underway, the NY Times report said.

Top authorities in the United States European Command, which oversees military operations in 93 countries including most of Africa, view the continent as an area of emerging threats.

"Africa, as can be seen by recent events, is certainly a growing problem," Marine Corps General James Jones, the head of the U.S. European Command, told the Times in an interview.

"As we pursue the global war on terrorism, we're going to have to go where the terrorists are. And we're seeing some evidence, at least preliminary, that more and more of these large, uncontrolled, ungoverned areas are going to be potential havens for that kind of activity," he was quoted as saying.

"United States military and intelligence officials say vast swaths of the Sahara, from Mauritania in the west to Sudan in the east, which have been smuggling routes for centuries, are becoming areas of choice for terrorist groups, including al-Qaeda," according to the paper.

Jones told the Times that "an allied maritime armada in the Mediterranean had forced international drug smugglers, weapons traffickers, Islamic extremists and other terrorists south to overland routes through Africa".

The Pentagon is not seeking permanent U.S. bases in Africa but wants to rotate troops in Europe to Africa more frequently, argued the report.

It would like access to bases in Africa for training and for periodic strikes on "terror groups including al-Qaeda and smaller African groups".

"These are groups that are similar to al-Qaeda, but not as sophisticated or with the same reach, but the same objectives," Air Force General Charles Wald, the European Command's second-in-command, told the Times. "They're bad people, and we need to keep an eye on that."