BEIRUT - Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora on Friday said his government did not ask Washington to send a US warship to the waters off Lebanon, which is embroiled in a deep political crisis.

"We did not ask anyone to send warships," Siniora said in a speech during a meeting with Arab ambassadors that was broadcast live on television, adding that no US warship was in "Lebanese waters."

"The Lebanese navy and UNIFIL naval forces, whuch are helping Lebanon secure its maritime borders, are the only ones" in Lebanese territorial waters, Siniora said in reference to United Nations peacekeepers.

Washington said on Thursday it had sent the USS Cole guided-missile destroyer to waters off Lebanon and that the vessel was already in the eastern Mediterranean.

The deployment was "a show of support for regional stability" because of "concern about the situation in Lebanon," a US official said on condition of anonymity, declining to say that the show of force was aimed at Syria or Iran.

Before Friday's speech Siniora also summoned the US charge d'affaires to ask her for "clarifications" about the dispatch of the USS Cole, a government source said.

"The prime minister summoned Mrs Michele Sison to ask her to clarify the presence of the USS Cole" in the Mediterranean, the source said.

"Mrs Sison assured him that the warship was in international territorial waters and had been dispatched to guarantee regional stability," the source added.

Lebanon has been without a president since last November amid political feuding between the ruling parliamentary majority and the opposition. -AFP