Kyrgyzstan has essentially reversed a decision to close an American air base that is central to the NATO mission in nearby Afghanistan, after the United States acceded to sharply higher rent and to minor restrictions on the site, Kyrgyz and American officials said Tuesday.

The turnabout is a victory for the Obama administration as it seeks to step up operations to quell the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan. The Kyrgyz government had ordered the base closed in February, apparently under pressure from the Kremlin, which has resented the deep American military presence in an area of the world that it has long considered its zone of influence.

By Michael Schwirtz and Clifford J. Levy for the New York Times

The Manas Air Base in Kyrgyzstan has been used since 2001 as a refueling stop and transit hub for operations in Afghanistan. Thousands of personnel and roughly 500 tons of cargo pass through the base each month. It has also been a focal point in the struggle between the United States and Russia for influence in the countries of the former Soviet Union. Russia pledged a $2 billion loan to Kyrgyzstan on the day in February that the Kyrgyz president announced that the United States would be evicted from the base.

It was not immediately clear what role the Russian government played in the new agreement between the Kyrgyz and American governments, but President Obama is scheduled to travel to Moscow next month for a summit meeting with Russia's president, Dmitri A. Medvedev, and the two powers have been seeking to improve relations in recent months.

The Kyrgyz and American governments both said the new arrangement would put limitations on the base. But neither side could point to any significant ones, and it seemed as if the agreement was written to offer the Kyrgyz government a face-saving way to undo its earlier decision. For example, the base is to be renamed a transit center, as opposed to an air base. And the Kyrgyz will control security around the base; currently, American military personnel do. The text of the new agreement specifies few other restrictions on how the United States can use the base. There do not seem to be any prohibitions on shipping weaponry.

One major change, though, is the rent. It will rise to $60 million annually from $17.4 million, Kadyrbek Sarbayev, Kyrgyzstan's foreign minister, told the Kyrgyz Parliament on Tuesday. Washington will also pay $36.6 million to expand the airport and will contribute tens of millions of dollars toward economic development and the fight against drug trafficking, Mr. Sarbayev said. He said the agreement would be for one year and would be contingent on the situation in Afghanistan.

Ian C. Kelly, a State Department spokesman, confirmed the accord at a daily news briefing but declined to discuss details. The agreement now goes before the Kyrgyz Parliament for ratification, which is considered all but assured.

The United States had pursued a strenuous campaign to persuade the Kyrgyz government to reconsider ahead of the Aug. 18 eviction date. This month, President Obama sent a letter to the Kyrgyz president, Kurmanbek S. Bakiyev, calling for greater cooperation in the fight against terrorism, Kyrgyz officials said. The officials insisted at the time that the American base would close on schedule.

On Tuesday, Russia's Foreign Ministry said in a statement that it was Kyrgyzstan's "sovereign right" to forge the agreement, which it said limited operations at the base to the transport of nonlethal cargo. In fact, there is no such stipulation. "If the issue is transit of nonmilitary NATO cargo for use in the counterterrorist operation in Afghanistan, then Russia and Kyrgyzstan's neighbors have also given their permission for this," the statement posted on the ministry's Web site said.

The Kyrgyz government also said the new arrangement was fundamentally different from the previous one. "It is to be a transit center for supporting operations of antiterrorist forces," said Almas I. Turdumamatov, a spokesman for Kyrgyzstan's president.  Some Kyrgyz politicians said the new arrangement was just cosmetic.

"I think the base will remain, but only under a different name," said Bakyt Beshimov, leader of the opposition Social Democrats in Parliament. "Substantively, nothing is changing."

According to the text of the new agreement, United States personnel and contractors can transport "any kinds of personal belongings, equipment, supplies, materials and technologies" into and out of Kyrgyzstan. Supplies will be exempt from inspection or licensing by the Kyrgyz government, the agreement says.

There had long been speculation that the Kyrgyz government never intended to evict the Americans, but only wanted more rent. In announcing the eviction, Mr. Bakiyev cited Washington's failure to adequately compensate the government. Relations also soured in 2006 when an American serviceman killed a Kyrgyz driver on the base.