BISHKEK (AFP) - The Kyrgyz parliament voted overwhelmingly on Thursday to close a US military base on its territory, in a blow for coalition forces who use the facility as a key supply route for Afghanistan. The vote came after the top US commander in Afghanistan predicted a "tough year" for the conflict-torn country even with the deployment of thousands of extra troops over the coming months. Deputies voted 78-1 with two abstentions for the government-backed bill to cancel the lease agreement on the Manas airbase, a transit point for 15,000 troops and 500 tons of cargo each month to and from Afghanistan. The move follows Russia's offer of $2.15 billion in aid and loans to the impoverished Central Asian country. Ruling Ak Zhol party MP Zayinidin Kurmanov said after the vote that the legislation must now be signed by President Kurmanbek Bakiyev, whose announcement last month of the base's closure shocked Washington. "After that Bishkek should send a note by the ministry of foreign affairs to the American side and within the next 180 days the United States must remove its base from the territory of Kyrgyzstan," the lawmaker said. Despite its importance, the vote proceeded with little fanfare with lawmakers then moving on to their next deliberations. "The Kyrgyz Republic has the complete legal right to unilaterally withdraw from the agreement with the United States over the base," MP Avtandil Arabaev, also from the dominant Ak Zhol, said ahead of the vote. Only Social Democrat lawmaker Bakyt Beshimov voted against the decision, saying that the closure of the base would "weaken the regional security situation and open the road to extremism and terrorism." The closure of the base would further strain coalition supply lines at a time when US President Barack Obama is planning to nearly double the 36,000-strong force in increasingly unstable Afghanistan. Meanwhile, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said the United States is ready to pay more but not beyond a "reasonable" amount to use the air base to supply US forces in Afghanistan. "We have not resigned ourselves to this being the last word," Gates said. "We're going to continue to work the problem with the Kyrgyz" government, the defence chief said during a visit to Poland for a Nato defence ministers "Manas is important but it's not irreplaceable," Gates said. Gates said that contingency plans for other supply routes reflected the increased demands that will come from the planned deployment of US troop reinforcements to Afghanistan. Earlier, a US Defence Department spokesman said the United States is not prepared to pay "any price" to remain at an air base in Kyrgyzstan that serves as a key supply route for US forces in Afghanistan, a Defence Department spokesman said. "We continue to consider what we might be able to offer the Kyrgyz government but we're not prepared to stay at any price," spokesman Bryan Whitman told reporters after the Kyrgyz parliament voted to close the Manas military base on its territory. "And we continue to look at other options that are available to us" in the region, he said. The US government was holding "discussions" with the Kyrgyz government and had yet to receive official notification of a decision to close Manas, he said.