NATO will move aircraft from the US air base in Aviano, northeastern Italy, to Bulgaria's Graf Ignatievo air base near Plovdiv, Italian media reported on Saturday.

The runways at the Aviano air based would be closed until October 23, for maintenance and repairs, which prompted the relocation of the US Air Force 510th fighter squadron, known as the Buzzards, to Bulgaria.

Here they would be able to hold tactical exercises against Soviet-make MiG fighter planes while the Aviano runways are being repaired, Italian regional daily Gazzettino reported.

Bulgaria joine NATO in 2004, during the organisation's second wave of expansion into what was formerly the Communist bloc, whose countries were members of the Warsaw Treaty pact before the fall of communism in eastern Europe.

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