Canada confident of extra NATO troops

Canada expects NATO allies to soon offer 1,000 more soldiers to support the Canadian contingent in Afghanistan, the foreign minister said Sunday.

Canada's Parliament agreed last week to extend Canada's 2,500-troop mission in Kandahar province to 2011, provided NATO sends more troops and equipment to back them up in the former Taliban stronghold.

Canadian Defense Minister Peter MacKay said he expected a pledge for troops before or during NATO's April 2-4 summit in Bucharest, Romania.

In addition to at least 1,000 extra troops, Canada is looking for equipment, including helicopters and unmanned surveillance aircraft.

"Those 1,000 extra troops — that is really a minimum," MacKay told a weekend conference of the German Marshall Fund of the United States.

Troops from Canada, Britain, the Netherlands and the United States have borne the brunt of fighting the resurgent Taliban, with support from Denmark, Romania, Estonia and non-NATO Australia.

MacKay cautioned against talk of a NATO exit strategy, citing an influx of Taliban insurgents from Pakistan. "This type of insurgency is a long and abiding challenge," he said. "This is going to take a consistent, long-term effort."

Canada has lost 80 soldiers and a diplomat in Afghanistan, putting pressure on Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government to withdraw the troops in February 2009, when their mandate was to expire.

But Harper pledged more focus on training and reconstruction, helping his minority Conservative government win support from opposition Liberals to push the 2011 mission extension through Parliament.

The U.S. contributes one-third of NATO's 42,000-strong International Security Assistance Force mission, making it the largest participant. It also has 12,000-13,000 U.S. troops operating independently.

Canada's pleas for more support have long gone unheeded, creating tensions in the alliance. Meanwhile, militants have stepped up attacks to make 2007 the deadliest year in Afghanistan since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion that toppled the Taliban regime.

At the security conference on Sunday, NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer used NATO's plight in Afghanistan to call for a rethink of the alliance's current strategic thinking so it also considers energy security and climate change.

"We need to anticipate these dangers and do more preventatively to mitigate their effects," he said.

De Hoop Scheffer suggested that the allies develop a new "Atlantic Charter" as soon as a new administration takes office in the White House in 2009.

"Climate change will put many of our key resources like food, water and land under considerable stress," he said. "The global competition for energy and natural resources will redefine the relationship between security and economics."

"Our growing reliance on information technology will make our societies more vulnerable to electronic warfare," he said. "At the same time, collective defense, NATO's core function, will and must remain a precious commodity."

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(This version CORRECTS title of Canada's defense minister in 3rd paragraph.)