NATO could provide security advice and military training for Libya if the country's new leaders ask for it, the US ambassador to the alliance said Monday.

"NATO is prepared, if requested by the new Libyan authorities, to consider ways in which it could help the Libyan authorities, particularly in the area of defense and security reform," Ivo Daalder, US ambassador to NATO, told reporters.

"But that is really something for the medium to longer term," he said.

The alliance had expertise in helping with defense reform, including training and "helping to set up a defense ministry," he said.

For the moment, however, NATO had no immediate role after the end of its air campaign over Libya, Operation Unified Protector, he said.

"All forces that were used for this operation have now returned to national control," he said.

The NATO-led bombing campaign, launched under UN mandate, ended on October 31 after the toppling of Moamer Kadhafi's regime and his death last month.

Daalder also said Libya could bolster its ties with the transatlantic alliance by joining NATO's "Mediterranean dialogue," a partnership comprising Morocco, Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria, Mauritania, Jordan and Israel.

His comments came as President Barack Obama on Monday met NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, with White House officials touting the US approach to the Libya operation launched in March.

Obama meets NATO chief, aides laud Libya role
Washington (AFP) Nov 7, 2011 - President Barack Obama on Monday met NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen, as top officials again defended the US role in the western alliance's campaign that helped topple Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi.

Obama and Rasmussen spoke in the Oval Office in a meeting opened briefly to still photographers but closed to reporters, and the White House offered few details of the agenda of the talks.

"NATO just completed a very important mission in Libya that we believe was executed very effectively," said White House spokesman Jay Carney.

The White House was criticized over its role in the Libyan operation by Republicans who said that it showed insufficient leadership in the operation, allowing allies like France and Britain to shoulder much of the combat duties.

But Obama aides refuted the criticism that they were "leading from behind" on the effort, noting the initial US barrage which took out Libyan air defenses and a support role that including vital intelligence assets.

US ambassador to NATO Ivo Daalder said Monday the president's tactics "made room for allies to be allies."

"This is the new NATO at work, a NATO where American leadership is essential, where the American military is indispensible, but where America doesn't have to do it all," Daalder said at the Atlantic Council.

"No country in the world can do what America can, especially when it comes to capabilities like (intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance) aerial refueling, jamming and targeting.

"If Libya was to be successful, the United States had to do what only the United States could do."

The meeting between Rasmussen and Obama came a week after NATO formally ended its mission in Libya, saying that it had fulfilled a UN mandate to protect civilians in an operation that helped topple Kadhafi.

Rasmussen was also meeting US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, National Security Advisor Tom Donilon and members of the Senate, his press office said in a statement Sunday.

The visit comes six months before the United States hosts a NATO summit in Chicago in May 2012.