OTTAWA — The presidents of Afghanistan and Pakistan will be in Ottawa this week on separate visits to promote co-operation with Canada and discuss issues facing their turbulent countries.

Prevez Musharraf of Pakistan and Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan are scheduled to meet Prime Minister Jean Chretien and some senior ministers.

Karzai will be in Ottawa next Saturday for a crowded, five-hour visit.

Sharif Ghalib, a spokesman for the Afghan embassy, said Karzai and senior officials will talk with Chretien, Foreign Affairs Minister Bill Graham, Defence Minister John McCallum and Susan Whalen, minister for international co-operation.

"The assumption is that they're going to take up a whole host of issues, ranging from security to diplomatic to reconstruction and aid to Afghanistan," Ghalib said.

David Rudd of the institute for strategic studies said Karzai is likely to thank Canada for sending troops to help keep the peace in his troubled capital of Kabul. He may also ask Canada to maintain a military presence longer than is now planned.

Ottawa plans to pull out after a year, but Rudd said Karzai likely will be looking for a stronger commitment.

"He will probably use the opportunity to ask for an extension of the mandate and the coverage to other urban areas ... asking us to stay the course to the greatest extent possible."

Canada's 2,000 soldiers are the biggest single contingent in the 31-country force in Kabul.

Graham and McCallum have both been to Kabul in recent months and Chretien is expected to visit this fall.

McCallum was there in June as engineers put the finishing touches on the base that houses Canadian peacekeepers. Graham was there this month for talks on development and reconstruction.

For Musharraf, the trip will help seal the fence-mending that has gone on in recent years between Canada and Pakistan. Relations cooled sharply in 1998 after Pakistan conducted a series of atomic tests. Canada suspended aid and loans, except for humanitarian projects, and cut visits and exchanges.

Things began to thaw two years ago and are back to normal.

Musharraf left his troubled country on Saturday -- Karachi was racked by a deadly bomb blast on Friday, the latest in a spate of terror attacks -- to visit New York, Washington and Ottawa.

He is to address the UN General Assembly and meet President George W. Bush on Wednesday before flying to Ottawa

Musharraf has been in the forefront of the American-led war on terrorism despite tensions and turmoil at home. Militants have kept Pakistan seething in recent months while the government has sought to placate Washington, while winning development aid.

Reports from Islamabad say Musharraf and Chretien will discuss expanding trade and economic co-operation between Pakistan and Canada.

Musharraf is also scheduled to address the members of the Pakistani community at a dinner and deliver a speech Thursday to an audience from the Canadian Institute for Strategic Studies.