According to well-informed daily Aftenposten, the Norwegian government's campaign to make Krohn Devold the first female secretary general of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation is a "lost cause".

"The message coming out of Europe's large capitals ... is clear: Kristin Krohn Devold is considered a politically active and dynamic person who has done a lot of good work for the Norwegian defence, but she is not really considered to be in the running to be NATO's new secretary general," it said.

Aftenposten said the candidacy of 41-year-old Devold suffered from her limited international experience and the fact that Norway was not a member of the European Union.

Her pro-Americanism -- she is known to get on well with US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and she once posed for photographs in clothing bearing with the US flag after the September 2001 attacks on the US -- could also be considered a burden.

NATO is currently suffering from divisive tensions which arose during the Iraq war, pitting the United States, Britain, Spain and Italy on one side and France, Germany and Belgium on the other.

NATO's new secretary general is to be announced "before September", diplomatic sources in Brussels said last week.

Krohn Devold's weak position would leave Portugal's European Justice Commissioner Antonio Vitorino the leading candidate, though other names could still surface.

Lord Robertson, 56, a former British defence minister, announced in January that he would be standing down after four years in the job.

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