Deputy US Defence Secretary Mr Paul Wolfowitz will outline today steps NATO allies can take in the war on terrorism - and military help is not the primary requirement, a senior US official said.
The official said Mr Wolfowitz would also urge allies to increase defence spending and take more responsibility in the Balkans as the United States leads the counter-offensive after the September 11th attacks.
The official briefed reporters en route to Brussels, where Mr Wolfowitz is standing in for Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld at the first allied defence ministers' meeting since the attacks.
Officials said the Bush administration would use the NATO meeting to intensify the process of consultation over actions to take in response to the attack.
With the United States calling up reservists to active duty and deploying troops and weapons to the region near Afghanistan, much of the public focus has been on military action.
But the senior official stressed that action would not be exclusively military and said intelligence-gathering and other forms of response were necessary.
"There is nothing more important in this war than information, by whatever means it can be secured," he said.
Allies also are being asked for direct military help, as well as overflight rights and logistics, he said.
He said broad support, including intelligence, shutting down bin Laden's financial accounts, pressing Iran and Iraq to end support for terrorism and providing economic aid to countries hurt by the campaign, such as Pakistan and Afghanistan, he said.
The administration anticipates that unlike the 1991 Gulf War coalition that went to war as a group, this time we're going to have different coalitions for different purposes, with some governments helping publicly and others secretly, he said.
One of Mr Wolfowitz's key messages will be that business on NATO's agenda before the US attacks - like the importance of investing in new defence capabilities and transforming the alliance for a new century - is more important than ever.