The Marshall Islands and the United States will negotiate next week plans to extend the American use of the Kwajalein missile testing range for an addtional 40 to 50 years.
The negotiations come as the Marshalls and US agreed on a new funding deal of 960 million US dollars under their Compact of Free Association.
The current lease for Kwajalein expires in 2016 and the US says it's interested in using the site until 2043 at the present rental rate of 13 million US dollars a year.
The Marshalls want for an extension the rent to go up to 21 million dollars.
Our correspondent, Giff Johnson, says Marshalls negotiators say the Kwajalein issue is critical to the final outcome of the new funding deal which is expected to be signed in two weeks.
"The negotiators here have continually said that if the US is willing to provide concessions say long term funding for Kwajalein then they're willing to accept lower funding in other areas of the compact so it's not really clear at this point how they expect to approve the overall funding package with Kwajalein still being negotiated."
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Giff Johnson in the Marshall Islands