The United States and its allies are considering a number of options to be taken against the Libyan government, but sending in ground troops is not "top of the list," White House spokesman Jay Carney said on Monday.

Carney told reporters that the North Atlantic Council, NATO's supreme decision-making body, was meeting on Monday on options that NATO can take, and "those obviously include military options."

Asked whether the options include the deployment of ground troops, Carney replied: "I would just say that no option has been removed from the table, but that ground troops is not, sort of, top of the list at this point."

He said that NATO was discussing three options -- humanitarian assistance, enforcing the UN arms embargo and contingency planning for a potential no-fly zone, and the meeting will continue on this week as options are being reviewed and considered.