Some 6,000 U.S. troops will return home from Haiti in November, and nearly all of the 7,800 U.S. ground forces in Kuwait will leave by Christmas, a Pentagon official says.

President Clinton approved the Pentagon plans Sunday during a campaign trip to the West Coast, said the Defense Department official, insisting on anonymity.The 6,000 troops are to begin leaving Haiti immediately and will all be home by Dec. 1. That, combined with previous departures, will leave about 9,000 troops in Haiti, down from 21,000 that were sent in September to help restore democratically elected President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to power.

By about April 1995, the U.S. presence in Haiti is expected to drop to 3,000 troops who will serve as part of a U.N. multinational force.

Those scheduled to leave this month include engineers who have been rebuilding infrastructure, logistics people who do work that will be taken over by contractors, and military police who will leave as the Haitians develop and train their own police force.

In Kuwait, ground troops will leave as they complete exercises and store their equipment. More than 7,000 will return home by Dec. 22, the official said.

More than 29,000 U.S. troops were sent to the region when Iraqi President Saddam Hussein began massing forces along the Kuwait border in September.

Even after withdrawal of ground troops, the United States will retain an increased air presence in the region to enforce the no-fly zone over northern Iraq and new "no-drive" or fly zone over the south.

The number of planes in the gulf was increased from 77 to 270 in response to the Iraqi movements. They will be reduced to about 100, the official said.

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