The Obama administration is considering a plan to use U.S. military trainers to help increase the capabilities of the Syrian militants

The Obama administration is considering a plan to use U.S. military trainers to help increase the capabilities of the Syrian militants, U.S. officials told The Associated Press on Thursday.

Any training would take place outside Syria, and one possible location would be Jordan.

The officials said no decision had been made, but that discussions were going on at high levels of the government. It comes as the Obama administration prods Congress to authorize limited military strikes against Syrian President Bashar Assad's government on allegations of an Aug. 21 chemical weapons attack.

The proposal to use the U.S. military to train the militants would answer the demands of some lawmakers, including Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., to do more to train and equip the armed Syrian opposition.
Officials said Thursday that talk about a military training mission has increased but that there have been no specific Pentagon recommendations forwarded to the White House on how big it should be or how many troops it should involve.

The CIA has been training select groups of militants in Jordan on the use of communications equipment and some weapons provided by Gulf states. The new discussions center on whether the U.S. military should take over the mission so that hundreds or thousands can be trained, rather than just dozens.

The Pentagon already has at least 1,000 troops in Jordan, including trainers working with Jordanian forces. The U.S. left about a dozen fighter jets and a Patriot missile battery there after a recent training exercise.

Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has told Congress that the U.S. military would be prepared to do more training for the Syria opposition if needed.