By ELISABETH BUMILLER

and STEVEN ERLANGER

| The New York Times

Munich, Germany • Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton sought Saturday to reassure Europe that, despite budget cuts in Washington and the coming withdrawal from the Continent of about 6,000 to 7,000 U.S. troops, the United States was not abandoning its partners across the Atlantic.

"Europe remains America’s partner of first resort," Clinton said, and Panetta described Europe as the United States’ "security partner of choice for military operations and diplomacy around the world."

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Panetta, however, drew another strong line against the prospect of about $500 billion in additional U.S. defense cuts over the next decade, calling them "crazy." So far the Pentagon is planning for only $487 billion in reductions over the next 10 years, which in Panetta’s view is enough.

The joint appearance by the two U.S. secretaries here was a first, and it was designed, U.S. officials said, to make it absolutely clear that Washington would not abandon its European allies even as it cut spending and turned its focus more toward the Asia-Pacific region. But they also emphasized that Europe had to stop cutting its own military budgets and had to get its own economic house in order to keep the NATO alliance strong.

Panetta said the United States would partly make up for the loss by designating a U.S.-based brigade to be ready to respond to needs in Europe. He also said that U.S. troops would more frequently travel to Europe for more joint military exercises.

European officials reacted primarily with only mild concern to the U.S. troop withdrawals. But other Europeans said that the changing U.S. focus marked a major strategic shift — which began with the Libyan war, where Washington took a back seat — that some Europeans did not fully understand.

Clinton and Panetta spoke at the Munich Security Conference, an annual gathering of European and American national security officials and experts. The United States has about 80,000 military personnel at 28 military bases in Europe.