Two or three NATO nations today suggested putting an alliance stabilisation force into the Middle East if latest peace talks succeed, but the United States said it was too early for such a proposal.
"Some ministers indicated that if these talks were successful in Sharm el-Sheikh today and Aqaba tomorrow, and if there was a need for some stabilisation force in that region then NATO should not rule itself out," NATO Secretary-General Mr George Robertson told a news conference.
He was speaking after a meeting in Madrid of NATO foreign ministers, who were united in calling for the 19-nation Western defence alliance to become a force for security far beyond the borders it guarded during the Cold War.
NATO has decided to take over peace-keeping operations in Afghanistan and agreed to back the Polish-led stabilisation force in Iraq.
"After Afghanistan, anything goes," said a foreign minister from one of the European allies.
"The Middle East idea is serious, but it would depend on a number of things, not least whether the parties (to the Middle East conflict) want it."
The suggestion, which one diplomat said was made by the Netherlands and backed by at least one other ally, came as US President George W. Bush launched an ambitious Middle East peace mission in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.
Mr Robertson was careful to say that only "a number of ministers, not all the ministers" had suggested a Middle East role for NATO and added: "We may be some way away from it."
The proposal came up at the end of the ministers' session and so there was no time for formal debate, one diplomat said.
However, a senior US official said later that although Washington was not opposed to the idea it was not keen either.
"I don't rule anything in or out. I'd say that it's premature...but I think that the United States is on the record in public for a long time saying that if both parties were to agree then it might be useful to have some kind of monitoring mechanism there," the official said.
"Let's do the job that's before us...before we get too far ahead of ourselves."