英语文摘：Canada renews mission in Afghanistan, keeping 950 troops on four areas

The estimated cost of Canada's engagement in Afghanistan from 2011 to 2014 is 700 million Canadian dollars a year over three years, although final costs will not be known until after 2014.

Canada, which joined the NATO's coalition in Afghanistan since 2002, has some 3,000 troops based there, mainly in the southern province of Kandahar, and has suffered losses of more than 150 lives.

Sources said that the transition of Canada's combat mission to the new one is expected to taper off, rather than ending suddenly. It could take about six months, from July to December 2011, as combat soldiers become full-time trainers.

Canadian soldiers will no longer be mentoring in the field, but teaching Afghan soldiers only in classrooms and on bases, they added.

Canadian opposition parties accused that the government has broken its promises to pull out all its troops by July 2011, a target set by the Parliament, and has refused to hold a debate and vote on the new mission in a non democratic exercise.

But Prime Minister Stephen Harper said ahead of the G20 meeting in Seoul, capital of South Korea last week that assigning a training and technical mission -- as opposed to a combat mission -- is within the authority of the prime minister, making a vote unnecessary.

Canada's move comes amid recent comments by Afghan President Hamid Karzai suggesting that the time has come to reduce military operations and the "intrusiveness into the daily Afghan life."

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