Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi said on Sunday Europeans could train Syrian forces to clamp down on alleged arms smuggling into Lebanon, but denied he had suggested Europeans might patrol the border.

Syria denied on Saturday that it would accept European Union guards to monitor its border with Lebanon, amid allegations of weapons shipments to Hezbollah.

The retort from Syria's official news agency SANA followed comments from Prodi that he had raised the idea of an EU mission to the frontier with President Bashar al-Assad, and that the Syrian leader had agreed in principle.

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Speaking at a news conference in Helsinki, Prodi said any EU deployment would be for training rather than patrolling.

"They will be only technical functionaries without weapons or uniforms," he said during a summit of European and Asian leaders. "They will train Syrian troops who will control the border. What we had from the Syrian agency was just a clarification."

Prodi underlined that the technical cooperation between Syria and EU would be "a step forward and would be reassuring for our mission in Lebanon."

Prodi said he had spoken to Assad twice on the telephone recently. "He is open to technical cooperation with the European Union without any military aspect. The technical details will be decided by a joint technical group."

Israel had called for an international presence on the Lebanon-Syria border to prevent arms smuggling as a condition for a full Israeli military withdrawal from Lebanon.

Syria and Iran are widely believed to ship arms and money to the Hezbollah militia. But Assad said last month deployment of international forces on the border would be a "hostile" move.

"Assad never intended to have a military presence of the EU," said Prodi.

Israel has gradually withdrawn forces since an August 14 ceasefire and United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan says it should complete the withdrawal once 5,000 U.N. troops reach south Lebanon.