Specifically the US and its allies are angry with five countries -- including anti-war heavyweights France and Germany -- who are refusing to send officers to a NATO training mission being set up in the war-scarred country.

"It's a serious disagreement," said a senior NATO official ahead of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) meeting of foreign ministers in Brussels on Thursday.

The five countries involved -- France, Germany, Belgium, Spain and Greece -- are not only refusing to send officers from their national armies to Iraq, as they made clear in June when NATO agreed the Iraq training mission.

Rather, Washington and other countries are angered because they are refusing to allow their officers assigned to NATO's command centres in Europe and north America to be sent by their commanding officers there to Iraq.

The official said the problem involves one in four officers based at two NATO command centres based in Mons, Belgium and Norfolk, Virginia.

"I don't believe this is right. It's an issue of principle for many allies. You have a responsibilty to NATO to allow those officers to serve and to follow the instructions of their commanders," said the official.

NATO's top commander in Europe, US General James Jones, raised concerns about the gaps in support for the Iraq mission, which aims to provide some 300 military trainers, during a visit to Washington last week.

In Brussels, where US Secretary of State Colin Powell is due to arrive Wednesday ahead of Thursday's talks with his counterparts, officials conceded there was discord but voiced hope it will be overcome.

"I don't want to paint a picture of crisis," he added, but admitted: "What we have is a point of difference, of philosophical difference," said one.

US ambassador to NATO Nicholas Burns meanwhile sought to highlight the positive for the year ahead.

"2005 ought to be a year of renewed unity. All of us want to put the disagreements of 2003 behind us and all of us want to see NATO succeed," he said.

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