About 24 will be accepted for the jobs which carry a six-month contract and a $20,000 life insurance policy.

A representative of a small Middle East country is expected to interview about 40 potential mercenaries in Sydney this week.

The 40 were selected from the original applicants by a Sydney private detective, Mr. Frank Monte, during the past three weeks.

Mr. Monte, who will receive $200 for each man selected, said yesterday that most of the applicants were former British Royal Marine Commandos. Their ages ranged from 21 to 35.

Mr. Monte said the country did not want it's name mentioned but he said it had a population of about 300,000. It was also recruiting mercenaries in Canada.

Commonwealth police had questioned him about the recruiting, suspecting it was a force for possible use in Australia or for use against Israel. But under the contract the men would be in an internal security force, probably fighting against insurgents.