Canadian PM vows continued support for Afghanistan

CANBERRA, Sep 11 (Reuters) Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, under fire at home for a troop commitment to Afghanistan that has cost 70 lives, said today he would not abandon the country.

''This cause is global and necessary,'' Harper said in a speech to Australia's parliament on the anniversary of the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

''Because as 9-11 showed, if we abandon our fellow human beings to lives of poverty, brutality and ignorance, in today'sglobal village, their misery will eventually and inevitably become our own,'' said Harper.

Canadians are divided over support for the country's 2,500 troops in Afghanistan and Harper's minority conservative government has said it would not extend the mission beyond February 2009 without a mandate from parliament.

Harper said he hoped Canadians would support their troops remaining in Afghanistan until Afghan forces could look after their own security, rather than aim for an arbitrary deadline to withdraw.

''Canada went into Afghanistan for very real reasons of national security and international security,'' Harper told a joint news conference with Australian Prime Minister John Howard.

''We should work towards that objective, rather than a particular arbitrary time,'' he said, adding the right thing for Canada to do would be to ensure it did not abandon the people of Afghanistan.

The United States led the war on Afghanistan in late 2001 to oust the ruling Taliban, accused of harbouring the militant al-Qaeda network blamed for the September 11 attacks.

REUTERS PJ AS1208