The parliament voted by 78 votes to one to close the US Manas base near the capital Bishkek, which is home to 1,000 US military personnel. The Americans now have 180 days to remove their planes and equipment and withdraw.

Today’s vote provides a major logistical headache for the US president, Barack Obama, who has made winning the war in Afghanistan a strategic priority. On Wednesday, Obama pledged to send an extra 17,000 troops to Afghanistan to combat the Taliban’s spring offensive.

Kyrgyzstan’s decision to close the base was widely expected. It followed a backroom deal two weeks ago between the country’s president, Kurmanbek Bakiyev, and Russia’s president, Dmitry Medvedev. The Russians have been keen to shut the base, used by the US since 2001, viewing it as an unwelcome intrusion into Russia’s traditional sphere of influence.

Bakiyev announced last month he would close the base during a trip to Moscow. In return Russia promised him a US$2.15bn loan and agreed to write off the impoverished country’s debts. Both Kyrgyzstan and Russia insist the generous aid package and the decision to close the base are unrelated. Few are convinced.

"This US$2bn has been paid in order to convince Kyrgyzstan to close the base," Bakyt Beshimov, an opposition politician, told Reuters this morning. "I am saddened by the fact that Kyrgyzstan’s image has now been so seriously tarnished."

The Kremlin has sent the White House a series of ambiguous signals in recent weeks - leaning on Kyrgyzstan to kick the Americans out, while at the same time agreeing to ship non-lethal US supplies across Russia to Afghanistan. For its part, the Obama administration has said it wants better relations with the Kremlin.

Analysts say Moscow wants to use the base in Kyrgyzstan as a bargaining chip in a much wider strategic dialogue with the US - over the future of the US missile defence shield in Europe, for example, and Nato membership for Georgia and Ukraine. The latter is something Russia vehemently opposes.

Today Kyrgyz officials made clear the US now had to get out of the Manas base. "Once all the procedures are over, an official eviction vote will be sent and after that the United States will be given 180 days to wrap up operations at the air base," Kyrgyz foreign minister Kadyrbek Sarbayev confirmed this morning.

He could not say when President Bakiyev was expected to sign the approved decision into law but it should happen within a month. The base has been a source of popular discontent since a local truck driver was shot by a US serviceman in 2006.

Both the US and Nato are currently negotiating transit deals with Central Asian countries neighbouring Afghanistan, including Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

The traditional Nato military supply route via Pakistan’s tribal areas and the mountainous Khyber Pass has become increasingly vulnerable to Taliban attack.

Kyrgyzstan, meanwhile, is in deep economic trouble. The small country faces rising unemployment, a growing trade deficit, and is struggling to pay its gas and electricity bills. The normally disunited opposition has got its act together and now threatens President Bakiyev.