European Union foreign ministers will on Friday discuss a request from Syria for Italy and Germany to provide technical support to help curtail weapons smuggling across its border with Lebanon.

The request, which first arose from recent contacts between Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president, and Kofi Annan, the UN secretary-general, appears designed to show Damascus is taking seriously its commitment to tighten border controls under the UN-brokered truce between Israel and the Islamic militant group Hizbollah, according to western diplomats.

Syria is one of Hizbollah’s main backers and Damascus has been accused repeatedly by Israel and western countries of supporting the transfer of arms to the militants across its border with Lebanon.

The Brussels meeting follows efforts by Italy and Germany to clarify the exact nature of Syria’s request. Romano Prodi, the Italian prime minister, said this week that he had had several telephone conversations with Mr Assad on the issue.

Mr Prodi said the assistance could involve unarmed technical personnel and the supplying of equipment, such as night-vision apparatus, according to a news agency report.

Italy, with 3,000 troops, is providing the biggest mil-itary force to the UN’s Unifil II peacekeeping mission in Lebanon.

A foreign ministry spokesman in Berlin said Germany was examining the request, which came via the UN and was centred on “technical support and the training of Syrian border police”. Germany said that, despite strained ties with Syria, the request was being taken seriously, with officials noting that it had already been discussed on Wednesday at a meeting of senior EU diplomats in Brussels.

Germany is already providing specialist advice on security and customs issues to Lebanon regarding tighter controls on its side of the border with Syria, and is sending a naval taskforce to prevent weapons smuggling off the Lebanese coast.

The request for only technical personnel and assistance appears to be in line with Syria’s recent stance of not allowing international troops operating under Unifil to operate on its side of the border. Damascus has promised to send an extra battalion of troops to the border and to improve co-operation with the Lebanese army.

Additional reporting by Tony Barber in Rome