Connection persistence in HTTPClient 4.2.5

In the code below I will request 5 urls for million times, is there any way to establish a persistent connection?

  //HTTPClient 4.2.5
  static HttpClient httpClient;
  static {
    HttpParams params = new BasicHttpParams();
    HttpConnectionParams.setConnectionTimeout(params, 1000);
    HttpConnectionParams.setSoTimeout(params, 1000);
    httpClient = new DefaultHttpClient(params);
  }
  public static String sendRequest(UUICRequest requset) throws
      ClientProtocolException, IOException
  {
    HttpGet httpGet = new HttpGet(requset.toUrl());//only 5 urls will be request
    HttpResponse response = httpClient.execute(httpGet);
    HttpEntity entity = response.getEntity();
    String ret = EntityUtils.toString(entity, "UTF-8");
    EntityUtils.consume(entity);
    httpGet.releaseConnection();
    return ret;
  }