BRUSSELS - NATO has ordered checks on its Brussels headquarters after "very limited" quantities of asbestos were found in the austere 1960s-era building, its spokesman said on Tuesday.

"Every inch of the building will be searched," said NATO spokesman James Appathurai.

"These buildings were built in an era when asbestos was a commonly used material. I have no doubt that the checks will turn up more of it," he added.

Traces of asbestos were found in boiler and electricity rooms not widely used by the 4,000 on-site staff, with more subsequently discovered in a doorway. Those areas have been cut off until the results of checks due in three months' time.

Built during the Cold War as a temporary home, NATO's headquarters in the northern Brussels suburb of Evere have been in service for 35 years and are busting at the seams after waves of enlargement that have brought NATO membership to 26 states.

NATO's asbestos find comes only months after the European Commission finally returned to its cleaned-up Berlaymont HQ a few miles (km) away, following a 13-year saga triggered by the discovery of the health-threatening material there in 1991.

While the EU Commission was keen to get back into its landmark star-shaped Berlaymont building, the fate of NATO's unloved HQ is less clear should any health risk be confirmed.

Last December the alliance commissioned Belgium to construct gleaming new offices just across the road from the current ones.