Defence Minister Peter MacKay is downplaying a report saying his U.S. counterpart doesn't believe NATO troops are effectively fighting the Taliban in southern Afghanistan.

An L.A. Times article quotes U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates expressing doubts about NATO countries that have sent large numbers of combat troops to fight in the south.

"I'm worried we have some military forces that don't know how to do counterinsurgency operations,'' the article quoted Gates as saying. "Most of the European forces, NATO forces, are not trained in counterinsurgency."

The report sparked an angry reaction from some British, Dutch and Canadian politicians. The three countries are spearheading the fight in the southern regions.

But MacKay on Wednesday pleaded for cooler heads to prevail, and insisted that in two recent conversations with Gates, the U.S. defence secretary "lauded Canadian forces" and their efforts in the region.

"He was laudatory in his comments on how Canadian soldiers, men and women in uniform, have performed in this mission," MacKay told reporters at a news conference in Ottawa on Wednesday afternoon.

"He called me just moments before I came in this room again to say, firstly, 'Everything I told you yesterday is true.'"

Scott Taylor, editor of Esprit de Corps magazine, told CTV's Canada AM that Gates needs to go further.

"I think it deserves more than just a phone call between him and Peter MacKay. If you've made a public condemnation of NATO troops, then Mr. Gates needs to come out and make a public apology to the Canadian forces and to other allies of NATO," Taylor said Thursday.

He suggested the U.S. is in no position to be criticizing Canada's commitment to Afghanistan, considering the Canadian Forces have stepped in to take a leading role in the mission when the U.S. shifted its focus to Iraq, leaving few resources in Afghanistan.

"The Americans have let this thing sit and stew and have left a very minimal amount of troops on the ground in Kandahar from 2002 to 2005. the Taliban regrouped and then they handed this thing off to NATO knowing that it was a mess," Taylor said.

"Now they're saying it's our fault for letting this thing degenerate and we don't know what we're doing. As opposed to what? The Americans in Iraq?"

Gates said the quotes attributed to him were taken "out of context," according to MacKay, and "they were comments made of a general nature about the need to focus training of NATO and the alliance on counterinsurgency."

However, Gates' own spokesperson Geoff Morrell said he was actually criticizing all of NATO, including his own country.

"I think the Secretary's criticism with respect to the Alliance's failings when it comes to training for counterinsurgency apply to all members of the Alliance," he said.

When asked if that included Canada, he went on to say: "Including the United States and including Canada. We all have work to do in terms of training our forces to deal with counterinsurgency."

L.A. Times journalist Peter Spiegel stuck to the story he broke, telling Mike Duffy Live that Gates was very clear in his criticisms and doubts about the training received by U.S. allies in the region.

"The question as I presented it to him is I had actually been hearing a lot of buzz in the Pentagon from military leaders that they had been concerned about the south, and again, what they call a lack of capability of the NATO forces in the south in counterinsurgency," said Spiegel in Los Angeles.

"I asked him if he agreed with that, and he said he agreed. He went on to talk at great length about how his concern was NATO forces were not trained in counterinsurgency."

Spiegel said Gates never explicitly said American forces would do a better job in the region, but that he "certainly" compared and contrasted the relatively quiet eastern Afghanistan -- where the U.S. forces are in control -- and the turbulent south.

"The implication was the U.S. has now got it right," said Spiegel, ". . . and is ahead of the Europeans in the south and Canadians in the south in effectively fighting a counterinsurgency."

"Granted, I've talked to a lot of people both at NATO and some military analysts who said it took a long time for the U.S. to get it right," he added.

NATO allies, meanwhile, have reacted with surprise and disbelief to Gates' comments in the report.

AP reports the Dutch Defence Ministry summoned the U.S. ambassador for an explanation.

In Ottawa, Liberal defence critic Denis Coderre demanded the Tory government either call in the U.S. ambassador to Canada or seek a clarification from Gates.

Coderre said at the very least, the comments smack of insensitivity in light of the death of a Canadian soldier north of Kandahar on Wednesday.

Gates' reported comments came to light the day after Washington authorized the deployment of 3,200 U.S. marines to Afghanistan in April after failing to convince European countries to provide reinforcements. Most of the U.S. troops will be deployed to the south to strengthen NATO forces there ahead of an expected increase of Taliban and insurgent activity with the spring thaw.

The U.S. has 14,000 troops with the 42,000-strong NATO-led force, the rest are training Afghan forces and hunting al Qaeda terrorists.

Canada currently has about 2,500 troops serving in the Afghan mission, most of them stationed in the southern province of Kandahar.

With a report from The Associated Press