The ambassadors of the 19-member alliance are to give the green light, at their regular weekly meeting, for military planners to look at options for a limited logistical support for Warsaw.

The request is understood to comprise technical support for coordinating troop contributions, and for intelligence or military planning support, diplomats said Tuesday.

Poland, which joined NATO in 1999, asked its NATO colleagues to study such options as quickly as possible.

Warsaw has described its request, which will be examined by NATO's military planners at Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) in Mons, Belgium, as "modest."

NATO is not expected to take the Polish request further, so long as a new UN resolution has not been passed, diplomats said.

Poland has scaled back its request in a bid to avoid plunging NATO into a new crisis like that which engulfed the alliance shortly before the Iraq war, when three countries blocked it from helping Turkey.

Diplomats underlined that NATO would not have a presence as such in Iraq.

The expected NATO decision will come on the eve of a meeting in Warsaw to coordinate preparations for Poland taking over a sector of Iraq, alongside sectors commanded by British and US forces.

Poland is negotiating the composition of forces to be deployed in its sector, where at least 7,000 troops are needed, said Warsaw's ambassador to NATO Jerzy Nowak.

Polish Defence Minister Jerzy Szmajdzinski said Monday that his country is ready to send 1,500 soldiers to Iraq in July.

NATO help for Poland in Iraq would be similar to the logistical support the alliance is currently giving to German and Dutch forces in the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan.

WAR.WIRE