"We're very close now to a consensus. We're confident we'll get an agreement in one or two days," a spokesman for the 26-nation military alliance, James Appathurai, told reporters after a meeting of NATO ambassadors.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation agreed at a summit in Istanbul in June to launch the training mission, after overcoming reservations from France which objected to NATO "planting its flag" inside Iraq.

NATO already has some 40 soldiers in Iraq training army officers in collaboration with the defence ministry in Baghdad. The United States, backed by Britain, has pushed hard for the mission to be enlarged.

But it emerged on Friday that France and Belgium among others were unhappy with the expansion plans, notably how the mission would be funded and protected, and the extent of the officer training involved.

Monday's meeting of the ambassadors grouped in NATO's executive North Atlantic Council (NAC) made significant progress, Appathurai said.

"Some remaining details need to be ironed out. What remains is final clarification," he said, adding a deal could be announced by Wednesday.

Iraq has endured as a sore in relations at NATO, which last year plunged into its worst-ever crisis when France and Germany spent weeks leading opposition to alliance help for Turkey in the run-up to the US-led war.

But a NATO source said little remained to block the expanded training mission, which will mark another step for the alliance's evolution out of its roots as the West's protector against the Soviet menace.

"There are no further areas of fundamental disagreement. It's a question of language," he said on condition of anonymity.

Everyone was agreed on the main issues surrounding the Iraq mission such as its funding, force protection, command arrangements, coordinating training outside of Iraq and equipment, the source said.

"Now it is a question of final drafting. They've set out more clearly the political direction for the overall mission," he said after the NAC meeting.

But there is no clearer indication yet of when the enlarged mission might be up and running. "I can't give a timeline," the source said.

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