OTTAWA -- Canada hopes to take command of the NATO mission in Afghanistan in two years, which would require sending an additional 100 Canadian troops to the country, Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor said yesterday.

"Canada is interesting in commanding ISAF (the International Security Assistance Force)," Mr. O'Connor said at a news conference, flanked by NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer and Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay.

"I also spoke to the Secretary-General when he was here, and I will be speaking to others as I meet other defence ministers to basically say that Canada is more than able to command ISAF," he said.

NATO, through ISAF, is involved in peacekeeping and reconstruction around Kabul, the Afghan capital. In August, it will take over the mission in southern Afghanistan that is now headed by Canadian forces as part of a U.S.-led coalition.

Canada now has about 2,300 troops in Afghanistan, 2,200 of them in Kandahar province, where the remnants of the Taliban are putting up heavy, armed resistance. If Canada takes over ISAF in 2008, another 100 personnel will be required, Mr. O'Connor said.

Mr. de Hoop Scheffer, who is in Ottawa on a two-day visit, said in an interview with The Globe and Mail that he is cognizant of the price Canada has paid in helping to secure peace in Afghanistan.

"We are there to make it possible to get the country on its feet again. Do not forget the enormous progress which has already been made in Afghanistan over the past years. Do not forget that six million boys and girls go to school . . . that Afghanistan came from the deepest depths, from a horrible Taliban regime where women had no rights at all and which was a nation exporting terrorism," he said.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced yesterday that Canada would provide $15-million to help rebuild the country's battered rural irrigation system.

Also yesterday, Ottawa said it was changing rules for foreign aid to let Canadian volunteer groups work directly with counterpart organizations in developing countries.

The changes, announced by International Co-operation Minister Joseé Verner, open the door for organizations to apply for Canadian International Development Agency financing for projects involving volunteer groups in poorer countries.

CIDA, however, is setting aside only $20-million a year for this new "voluntary sector fund." No one Canadian organization can get financing for more than three projects, and the maximum CIDA contribution for a project is $500,000.

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