Pat Dollard

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TORONTO (AP) – Canada’s minority Conservative government said Wednesday it will ask Parliament to extend the country’s combat mission in Afghanistan, and indicated it might be willing to put itself on the line to make sure the unpopular measure passes.

The government motion will be based on recent recommendations by an independent panel saying that Canada should continue its mission only if another NATO country musters 1,000 troops for Afghanistan’s dangerous south.

Prime Minister’s Stephen Harper’s Conservative government is under pressure to withdraw its 2,500 troops from Kandahar province, the former Taliban stronghold, after the deaths of 78 Canadian soldiers and a diplomat. The mission is set to expire in 2009 without an extension by Canadian lawmakers.

The refusal of some major European allies to send significant number of troops to Afghanistan’s southern front lines has opened a rift within NATO. Troops from Canada, Britain, the Netherlands and the United States have borne the brunt of a resurgence of Taliban violence in the region, with support from Denmark, Romania, Estonia and non- NATO nation Australia.

Germany said Wednesday it will send about 200 troops to serve in a quick reaction force in northern Afghanistan at NATO’s request, but the defense minister flatly rejected sending soldiers to the volatile south.

Canadian opposition parties have threatened to bring down Harper’s minority government if he does not end the increasingly unpopular combat mission.

Carolyn Stewart Olsen, a spokeswoman for Harper emphasized that Harper has called the Afghan issue a matter of grave importance, and opposition Liberal leader Stephane Dion said Harper has told him he would put the measure to a confidence vote.

The two other opposition parties in Parliament have said they will bring down Harper’s minority government if he does not end the combat mission, but they cannot do that without the support of the Liberals.

Parliament’s vote on the mission will take place in March if NATO produces the additional troops, the spokeswoman said.

Germany’s mandate in Afghanistan, which is granted by parliament on an annual basis, will be up for renewal again in October.

Germany currently has roughly 3,300 troops in relatively calm northern Afghanistan as part of NATO’s International Security Assistance Force. German officials, facing public skepticism over the prospect of being drawn deeper into fighting in Afghanistan, want to maintain their focus on the north, Jung said.

“I think it would be a very big mistake if we would transfer our responsibility from the north to the south,” Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung told reporters.

Although Jung insisted the 200 troops would be based along with Germany’s other troops the north, it would be available for support missions elsewhere in Afghanistan.