Canada refuses to delay troops departure from Afghanistan

Canada has turned down a US requestto delay the withdrawal of its 2,000 troops from Afghanistan, the Canadian Defense Department said Friday.

"A determination has been made that we are going to rotate our troops back," a spokesman for the Defense Department said.

The United States, worried about potential violence during Afghan elections this fall, hopes that Canadian soldiers would stay after the scheduled term. The 2,000 Canadian soldiers are scheduled to depart from late July to mid-August.

Canada has made up of about 40 percent of the NATO-led forces of the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan.

US officials are expected to impose more pressure on Canada to persuade it to keep its troops in Afghanistan during the NATO summit to be held on June 28-29 in Istanbul, Turkey.

Source: Xinhua