Toronto: Canada's Parliament voted to extend the country s mission in Afghanistan to 2011,provided NATO supplies more troops and equipment to back up Canadian forces in the volatile south.

Canada's minority Conservative government reached a compromise with the opposition Liberals last month that allowed the motion to pass. Lawmakers passed it 198-77 in the House of Commons yesterday.

Harper's government was under pressure to withdraw Canada s 2,500 troops because of the deaths of 80 soldiers and a diplomat. The mission had been set to expire in February 2009 unless lawmakers extended it.

The Conservatives had declared the motion a confidence vote, which would have triggered early elections if it had failed.

The extension of the mission is conditional on NATO providing 1,000 troops, some helicopters and unmanned surveillance aircraft to back up Canadian forces in Afghanistan s southern Kandahar province, the former Taliban stronghold. Canada has until February to secure that.

The refusal by some major European allies to send a significant number of troops to the 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 Australia.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has reached out to several key NATO allies in a bid to get more troops for the south.

Source : PTI