Accra, Oct. 26, GNA - The Accra Air Force Base is to house a new hanger for the US Embassy's C-12 aircraft that would provide regional support for its mission in Ghana and 26 other embassies in West and Central Africa.

The aircraft was attached to the US missions in Dakar and Monrovia and until 2004 it was based in Abidjan, La Cote d'Ivoire. A new operating location had to be found for it after the deterioration of the political situation in Cote d'Ivoire.

The Ghana Government and the Ghana Air Force provided the space to park and maintain the aircraft when it arrived in Accra in early 2004 until a proper hanger was built for it.

The aircraft, capable of flying 1,200 miles - about five and half hours in the air - depending on its mission, can carry about eight passengers.

At a short ceremony at the Air Force Base in Accra on Thursday to unveil the project, Ms Pamela Bridgewater, US Ambassador in Ghana, said the construction of the hanger represented the commitment of both countries to bilateral relations as well as their joint goal of promoting stability and cooperation in the West Africa Sub-Region and throughout Africa.

She extended the US Congress's appreciation to the Ghana Air Force for providing such support and expressed appreciation to the Government of Ghana for giving the C-12 a new home.

Air Vice-Marshal Joseph Boateng, Chief of Air Staff of the Ghana Air Force, also expressed appreciation to the governments of the Ghana and the US for bringing the militaries of both countries together. He said the Ghana Air Force enjoyed the training support from the US and expressed the hope that such cooperation would continue into the future.