Two U.S. military brigades slated to return home will remain in Germany for two extra years until at least 2012, the U.S. military said Wednesday.

The military has received permission from U.S. President George W. Bush to delay the return, Vice Chief of Staff of the Army Gen. Richard Cody told Pentagon reporters.

The two brigades also will be reorganized and reflagged as "heavy brigade combat teams,"

In 2012, one of the heavy brigade combat teams will be permanently relocated back in the United States, at Fort Bliss, Texas, he said.

The following year, 2013, the other unit will go to White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, Cody said.

The delay was proposed by U.S. military leaders in Europe, who advocated keeping the larger force on the continent to sustain training and other exercises with foreign militaries and as a hedge against risks to U.S. security.

The number of U.S. Army troops in Europe has already fallen to 43,000 from 62,000 two years ago under a plan signed by Donald H. Rumsfeld, then defense secretary.

That plan had been described as the most significant rearrangement of the American military since the Cold War, calling for the number of Army troops in Europe to be cut to about 24,000 by the end of 2008.

But the new decision to delay the return of Army troops from Europe probably means that it will be up to the next president to decide the eventual number and location of American forces in Europe.