BRUSSELS (AFP) — US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice expressed optimism Wednesday that NATO can find enough troops for Afghanistan to meet Canadian demands for a better response to the Taliban-led insurgency.
"People have obviously been working very hard on this issue," Rice told reporters travelling with her to Brussels, where she will meet with her NATO counterparts on Thursday, with Afghanistan high on the agenda.
"I think people have made progress and I think we are hopeful that NATO is going to meet the commitment that it needs to meet," she said.
"The Canadian contribution is highly valued and so we need very much to be able to meet the circumstances that would allow Canada to continue," she said, en route to Europe from Jerusalem.
Canada plans to end the mandate of its troops in Afghanistan in 2011 but has threatened to leave in a year if NATO does not send reinforcements, medium lift helicopters and drones soon.
Some 2,500 Canadian troops are deployed in Afghanistan's volatile south as part of the 43,000-strong NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) battling Taliban and Al-Qaeda fighters.
Like a dozen countries represented in the south, where opium cultivation is flourishing, Canada is taking heavy casualties that are feeding public dissatisfaction at home.
Since 2002, 79 Canadian soldiers and a senior diplomat have died in roadside bombings and in melees with the insurgents.
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