Nato allies weresplityesterday on deploying an air mission to police Libya's skies, with fears raised about angering the Arab street in a complexoperation requiring bombing raids.

As forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi reportedly launched air strikes on a rebel-controlled town in eastern Libya, ambassadors from the 28-nation alliance's decision-making body, the North Atlantic Council, were to discuss the Libyan upheaval at a regular meeting in Brussels, a Nato official told AFP

The United States and Britain have raised the possibility of creating a no-fly zone to prevent Muammar Gaddafi from launching air raids against his own people, with London claiming that a UN mandate was not necessarily needed.

France however has insisted any military action would require UN backing.

"There is no unanimity within Nato for the use of armed forces," US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said in Washington.

French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe raised

concerns about how any operation would be viewed in an Arab world facing popular revolts against autocratic regimes.

"I don't know what would be the reaction on the Arab street, if Arabs around the Mediterranean saw Nato forces landing on southern Mediterranean territory," he said. "I think that could be extremely counterproductive."

TUrkey, an influential Nato member with a majority Muslim population, rejected the idea of military action in Libya, saying the alliance could only intervene when one of its members is attacked.

"This would be absurd," Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said during a visit in Germany this week, according to Anatolia news agency. “Nato has no business being there."

"We are opposed to such a scenario. Such an eventuality is unthinkable," he said.

The United States has not ruled out enforcing a no-fly zone over Libya but military brass warned this would first require bombing the Gaddafi regime's radar and missile defences.