Access to Pacific harbours key to U.S. strategy - Panetta

CAM RANH BAY, Vietnam (Reuters) - U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta visited a deep-water Vietnamese port near the contested South China Sea on Sunday, calling access to such harbours critical as the U.S. shifts 60 percent of its warships to the Asia-Pacific by 2020.

Panetta flew to Cam Ranh Bay, one of Asia's finest deep-water harbours located about 450 miles (720 km) south of China, just a day after he spelled out details of a new U.S. military strategy that calls for a shift in focus to the Pacific after a decade of conflict in Afghanistan and Iraq.