A NATO spokesman made little official comment, but sources pointed out that the 26-nation alliance has active missions in the Balkans, Africa and Iraq as well as Afghanistan, which is facing a growing surge of violence.

"There are huge challenges involved for any kind of intervention force," said one NATO source in Brussels.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization in theory has the command structure, planning capability and political coordination capability to run a multi-national operation, said the source.

But he added: "What (NATO) allies are willing to put at its disposal is a different question."

The comments came after the United States and Israel said Sunday that they were ready to back an international force led by NATO in south Lebanon to ease tensions.

"Israel supports the possibility of deploying a multi-national force with a strong mandate," possibly sponsored by NATO, Israeli Defence Minster Amir Peretz was quoted as saying in Jerusalem.

No US troops are likely to be in the force, which according to a US media report could be between 10,000 and 20,000-strong and led by a contingent from France or Turkey.

In Brussels, NATO's official spokesman James Appathurai would not be drawn into elaborate comment. "There has been no request made to NATO to play any role," he told AFP.

"The international community has not defined whether any force might be deployed (or) what role that force might play.... NATO has not had any political discussion on this subject, nor is any scheduled," he said.

But another source stressed the fact that the United States -- long NATO's dominant force -- is already fighting two wars, in Iraq and Afghanistan, as is Britain which packs Europe's biggest military punch along with France.

The Washington Post has reported that France and Turkey could provide a significant number of troops, but NATO sources said that drumming up enough fire power would be a "huge challenge."

Experts agreed that finding troops would be a major problem.

"Europe and NATO are committed today, some of them at least, in four major areas of operation: Afghanistan, Iraq, the Balkans and the Democratic Republic of Congo," said Claude Moniquet, head of the Brussels-based thinktank Esic.

"It is always in theory possible to send 10,000 men, but we are reaching the limits of when this is possible," he added, noting that any plan would also require huge logistical support, and may come up against French resistance.

For the moment few concrete details have emerged about how the force might function or what its mandate would be. Foreign ministers including US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice are due to discuss the issue in Rome on Wednesday.

European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana, himself a former NATO secretary general, declined to elaborate on plans for the force Monday, but reiterated that several EU states would be willing to support it.

"We are trying to define among ourselves the concept of the force. We are at the start of the discussion," he said after talks with Lebanon's parliamentary majority leader Saad Hariri.

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