FORT LEWIS, Wash. -- Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he'll announce very soon whether the Pentagon will rebid the air tanker contract.

"I take the report from the Government Accountability Office very seriously," he said of the Government Accountability Office report that found deficiencies with the process that picked an Airbus A330 plane. "Particularly, their identification of some deficiencies in the contract process."

Gates spoke in response to a reporter's question during a Tuesday visit to Fort Lewis.

In February, the Air Force awarded a $35 billion contract for refueling tankers to a partnership of EADS and Northrop Grumman. EADS is the parent company of Boeing rival Airbus. Boeing proposed a tanker based on its 767 plane.

The order for 179 tankers is the first of three Air Force contracts worth as much as $100 billion over 30 years to replace a fleet of nearly 600 tankers.