Canada 'optimistic' of extra NATO troops for south Afghanistan

BUCHAREST: Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper expressed optimism Wednesday that NATO allies would come up with reinforcements to bolster Canadian troops fighting the Taliban in south Afghanistan.
"I am not worried. I am very optimistic that we'll achieve our objectives," he said at a conference in Bucharest, ahead of a summit of NATO leaders, where in-fighting over Afghanistan deployments will figure on the agenda.
Canada has been lobbying European allies to send at least 1,000 troops, drones and helicopters to help fight insurgents in volatile Kandahar province as a condition for extending its deployment to 2011.
France is expected to pledge several hundred troops to the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), and an alliance spokesman said other nations were likely to do so at the summit, which runs until Friday.
"We'll see what the French decide, they made no commitment to us or to NATO," Harper said, adding that: "Anything France does, it is a victory, a step forward."
ISAF comprises some 47,000 troops from 40 nations, according to new official figures, and is trying to spread the rule of Afghanistan's weak central government and foster reconstruction.
But Canadian, British and US troops have suffered significant casualties in the south, and fighting is likely to grow more intense as the weather warms, allowing insurgents to cross the mountainous border with Pakistan more easily.
Canada's parliament voted earlier this month to extend its military mission in volatile southern Afghanistan to 2011, but only if its allies send reinforcements.
Otherwise Canada would exit at the end of its current mandate next February.