SEOUL, South Korea - The United States wants to withdraw a third of its 37,000 troops stationed in South Korea by the end of next year, U.S. and South Korean officials said today as the two countries discussed plans for repositioning soldiers along the Cold War's last frontier.

The withdrawal would be the first major troop cut on the Korean Peninsula since the early 1990s, when the two allies agreed to remove 7,000 U.S. troops.

The U.S. proposal came Sunday evening as both sides prepared to open the two-day Future of the Alliance talks today, according to a statement released by U.S. Forces Korea. The statement confirmed comments made earlier today by Kim Sook, head of the South Korean Foreign Ministry's North American bureau.

According to Kim, the U.S. side told the South Koreans that the proposal will not affect U.S. soldiers' ability to defend South Korea because of more modern weapons systems it plans to bring in. Washington has promised to spend $11 billion in the next five years to upgrade its firepower in the region.

Washington proposed withdrawing 12,500 U.S. troops over 2004 and 2005 and intends for the figure to include about 3,600 already slated to be redeployed this summer from South Korea to Iraq, the U.S. statement said.

Troop levels are a prickly issue in South Korea, where many still have painful memories of the communist North Korean invasion that triggered the 1950-53 Korean War.

The talks follow a shift in Seoul toward a more liberal government following recent elections. They also come amid a dispute over North Korea's nuclear weapons development.

Washington has kept troops here since the Korean War, in part to help Seoul deter potential aggression from the North. The Korean War ended without a peace treaty, and the two sides are still technically at war.

The talks will focus mainly on a U.S. plan to reposition most of its forces currently stationed near the North Korean border to points south of the South Korean capital, Seoul.

The planned U.S. troop reduction is seen as part of Washington's global effort to realign its forces so they can better respond to emergencies worldwide.