Bowing to protests and political pressure, President Mr George W. Bush today said the Pentagon has decided to halt controversial US amphibious warfare exercises on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques because "they don't want us there."
White House and Pentagon officials said the exercises will be discontinued by 2003.
Speaking in Sweden, Mr Bush said the navy should find somewhere else to train "within a reasonable period of time" because people had been harmed by the exercises in the past and the Puerto Ricans "are our friends and neighbours, and they don't want us there."
"The Navy ought to find somewhere else to practice," Mr Bush said.
The decision was a victory for Puerto Rican activists who have waged a campaign of protests and civil disobedience to halt bombings of the island range since a civilian guard was killed by an errant Marine Corps bomb more than two years ago.
It was a blow to the Navy, which has used the island since World War II to practice aerial and naval bombardments while Marines storm its beaches.
AFP