VILNIUS - NATO countries agree the alliance must be ready to consider a role supporting the Middle East peace process if asked for, but insist it is premature to discuss concrete options, officials said Thursday.
Foreign ministers from the 26-member North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) discussed the Middle East over dinner late Wednesday at the start of two days of informal talks in Lithuania.
"In principle all allies are open to the idea that eventually, if asked, the alliance should at least consider" a role to support a peace agreement, said a NATO official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
But he said: "Anything beyond that at this point is simply premature," adding that there was no discussion for example of a NATO peacekeeping force like those the military alliance has mounted in the Balkans.
"I don't think anybody is seriously considering any kind of implementation force in the same way that we've seen in Bosnia," said the official.
NATO chief Jaap de Hoop Scheffer has for some months suggested that NATO could at some stage play a role in the Middle East peace process.
The issue is extremely sensitive, with opinions divided within the 26-member alliance. France has notably said that NATO has "no vocation" to replace the key actors mediating in the region.
NATO has for some time been seeking stronger ties in the region, notably through its so-called Mediterranean dialogue which aims to boost ties with Mediterranean-rim countries including Israel.
The Middle East discussion at the NATO talks was billed as an example of an "enhanced political dialogue" for which the alliance wants to provide a forum, as opposed to debating strictly military issues.
04/21/2005 07:17 GMT