The retiring commander of U.S. forces in Asia and the Pacific, Adm. Timothy Keating, disputes the contention that American power in this region is declining.

Keating, scheduled to relinquish command to Adm. Robert Willard tomorrow, said: "The notion that the U.S. military is in decline in the Pacific, I think, is not well-founded." The admiral said Pacific Command's readiness had not suffered even though 30,000 of the 300,000 soldiers, sailors, Marines and airmen assigned to the command are serving in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Indian Ocean.

In an interview in his office on a hill overlooking Pearl Harbor, Keating said: "I think it is an inaccurate characterization" to assert that Pacific Command's capabilities had declined, but acknowledged that his staff had "made some accommodations" in planning and training. "But writ large, we are as ready now as we were the day I walked in." That was 21/2 years ago.

About that time, Chinese, Russian, European, Middle Eastern and American scholars, military strategists and defense officials began speculating about a decline in American power. Under scrutiny, however, the issue is less the decay of American strength and more the economic and military rise of China, the emergence of other nations in Asia, and the revival of Russian power in Asia.

Keating said: "I don't worry about China but I think about them a fair amount. There's a difference." Staff officers estimate that the admiral and the staff spend about 30 percent of their time on issues dealing with China, including incidents such as Chinese interference with U.S. ships patrolling outside Chinese territorial waters. Pacific Command has 36 other countries in its area of responsibility.

The admiral, like his predecessors for the past 15 years, has cautioned the Chinese not to miscalculate U.S. capabilities and intentions. Staff officers recounted an episode in which a Chinese admiral suggested to Keating that China and the U.S. split the Pacific Ocean, China controlling the western portion and the U.S. the eastern waters. Keating firmly rejected the proposal.

In assessing Chinese power, many Western defense specialists focus on missiles, aircraft and warships but neglect intangibles such as training. Chinese fighter pilots, for instance, typically get seven or eight hours of flying time a month; their American counterparts get 20 to 22 hours a month in a physically demanding regime.

In Korea, the U.S. is assembling a large majority of its troops in a base complex south of Seoul where they will form an expeditionary force that can deploy elsewhere in Asia. South Koreans will take complete responsibility for their own defense against North Korea.

"This affords us the flexibility to use those forces," Keating said, "in ways that we had not been able to use them in times past."

The admiral noted that the U.S. last year replaced the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk with the nuclear-powered and far more capable USS George Washington in the home port of Yokosuka, Japan. The role of Japan itself under its new leftist government headed by the Democratic Party of Japan is open to question. "We will be very interested in whatever security arrangement they choose," Keating said.

Guam, the U.S. territory in the central Pacific, is becoming a key forward operating base with three submarines posted there and Marines moving from Okinawa.

Keating lauded the contribution of Australia to the alliance with the U.S., Indonesian progress in countering terror, and the increasing interest India has in security dialogue and training with the U.S.

Summing up, Keating said: "I came in optimistic, I leave optimistic."