OTTAWA, March 14: Canadian parliament on Thursday approved Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s plan to keep his country’s troops in Afghanistan till 2011.

The ruling Conservatives’ motion was easily passed with 198-77 vote thanks to main opposition Liberal party’s support. The motion calls for the mission to be renewed past 2009, but with a focus on reconstruction and training of Afghan troops. It also includes a firm pullout date, calling for Canadian troops to leave Afghanistan by December 2011.

The extension of the mission was vehemently opposed by two other opposition parties – NDP and the Bloc Quebecois. Several dozen protesters in the House of Commons’ public gallery tried to upset the vote chanting anti-war slogans. A powerful anti-war organisation, Canadian Peace Alliance, had earlier, appealed to the MPs to vote against the government motion.

After the passage of the bill, Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier said the vote has given the prime minister a “strong mandate” heading into the upcoming Nato meeting in Bucharest, Romania, to appeal to allies for more troop support for the Kandahar region.

“Now we have a mission that is not a Conservative mission, not a Liberal mission, but a Canadian mission,” Bernier remarked.