In an about-face for the Bush administration, defense officials are quietly examining proposals including a small joint-services unit of a few thousand troops that could be assembled in as little as a year to perform policing, civil affairs, engineering, medical and other duties in hot spots such as Iraq and Afghanistan.

A study, ordered by the Pentagon's Office of Force Transformation and written by National Defence University, also proposes an ambitious long-term Army reorganization to create up to two active divisions for a combined 30,000 active-duty and reserve troops dedicated to stabilization and reconstruction duties under new joint command.

An aide to Office of Force Transformation director Arthur Cebrowski told Reuters the office declined to comment on the plan and referred all questions to the study's authors.

The team that produced the study said stabilization duties were fast becoming key to military success due to the increased pace of US intervention abroad and a new battle strategy bent on producing quick, decisive victories with fewer troops.

"I see this force as a bridge between the actual period of high-intensity conflict on the one hand, and nation-building, which is primarily a civilian effort, on the other," said National Defense University professor Hans Binnendijk, a former Clinton administration National Security Council official who led the study.