Fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) was obsd. between donor dye mols. deposited onto the sample surface and acceptor dye mols. deposited onto the scanning near-field optical microscope (SNOM) or at. force microscope tip. FRET was obsd. only when the tip acquired a contact with the sample and took place in a region of few tens of square nanometers in size when thousands (hundreds) of mols. are involved. In view of the obtained results, the perspectives for the construction of a 1-atom FRET SNOM are described. [on SciFinder (R)]