The US military will retain a "strong presence" in the Middle East despite a strategic shift to Asia, Defence Secretary Leon Panetta said yesterday during a visit to Kuwait.

The United States plans to deploy a majority of its naval fleet to the Asia-Pacific along with other advanced weaponry but Panetta insisted that a robust American force would remain in place in the Middle East.

Panetta spoke to reporters aboard his plane before arriving in Kuwait City to discuss bolstering security ties amid tumult in the region and tensions with Iran.

"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," he said.

He acknowledged that the United States had to be "flexible" in managing its forces in a more austere era and that it would have only one aircraft carrier in the Middle East for about two months to allow for maintenance work on another carrier, the USS Nimitz.

The American military still had nearly 50,000 troops and warships positioned across the region, he said.