Canadian troops will remain in Afghanistan until 2011 with 2,500 soldiers, but only under certain conditions, Canada's Parliament decided late Thursday. ( dpa )
The Toronto Star reported online a vote of 198 to 77 for the plan.
Parliament set the condition that that for Canadian troops to remain on the tough front lines in southern Afghanistan, at least 1,000 troops must be sent to its support from other NATO countries.
The agreement was reached only after the Conservative minority government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper agreed to a demand by the liberal opposition to nail down a specific date for the withdrawal.
Opposition leaders had wanted to end the mission next year, when the official commitment ends. Harper wanted to leave the commitment open-ended.
While the Liberals agreed to the deal, two other opposition parties - the New Democratic Party and Bloc Quebecois - continued to reject the plan.
The parliamentary vote gives cover to Harper when he participates next month in the NATO summit in Bucharest, Romania.
The deployment of Canadian soldiers in the dangerous south of Afghanistan is hotly contested. Since 2002, 79 Canadians have lost their lives, and in 2006, a Canadian diplomat was killed.
The United States is frustrated by the unwillingness of NATO allies to send troops into hostile areas, and US Secretary of Defence Robert Gates has recently been making the case quite strongly.
The US has 26,000 soldiers in Afghanistan, to be boosted to 30,000 in March, who along with British, Denmark, Dutch and Canadian troops carry the main brunt of fighting in Afghanistan.