AFP - US President Barack Obama will use a visit to Australia next week to announce that America will begin stationing Marines at a base in Darwin, reports said on Friday.

In a front page exclusive, the Sydney Morning Herald said the new permanent military presence was a sign of heightened concern about the rise of China.

The US currently has only a limited deployment in Australia, including the Pine Gap Joint Defence Facility spy station near Alice Springs.

Obama arrives in the country on Wednesday, visiting the capital Canberra before becoming the first US president to travel to the Northern Territory when he lands in Darwin.

It is in the country's tropical north that he will make the announcement with Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard, the newspaper said.