NAPLES, Oct 7: The US Navy is moving its European operational headquarters from London to Naples as part of a post-Cold War shift in priorities and to meet the growing threat of international terrorism , its commander in Europe said on Thursday.

The move will take place "over the next year," said Admiral Gregory Johnson, who is also NATO's outgoing southern Europe commander. Johnson said the 27-country alliance is confronting "a band of chaos" across the globe, facing the threats of terrorism, nuclear proliferation and "failing states".

The new "very mobile, agile" NATO Response Force, which became operational in July, would demonstrate the seriousness of intent to tackle such security challenges.

The move of the US headquarters from London is part of a plan outlined to by US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to the armed services committee of the US Senate last month, which will see the military abandon 35 percent of its Cold War era bases abroad.

"After the Cold War the strategic shift has moved south and east, it's kind of natural that Naples is at the centre of where the strategic shift of NATO is, and where the strategic shift of the United States should be," Johnson told reporters. -AFP