Canada will nearly double the number of troops it has in Afghanistan by this summer and is considering sending a combat brigade to the Kandahar region early next year, Defence Minister Bill Graham told The Associated Press on Sunday.

Canada currently has some 600 troops serving in the Afghan capital of Kabul with NATO's International Security Assistance Force, and plans to put a provincial reconstruction team, or PRT, in the southern city of Kandahar by August, Graham said.

The PRT, which aims to boost stability while working on humanitarian projects such as building schools and clinics, would be part of an overall expansion of peacekeepers into the southern region later this year.

"Canada will be there for establishing a PRT in Kandahar in August, that will be the first step," Graham told AP on the sidelines of an international security conference in Munich. "We will have the 600 in Kabul still, so that means we'll be up to the 1,000 to 1,100 range."

At a NATO defence ministers' meeting in France on Thursday, Canada expressed willingness to take a leading role in the Kandahar area. Graham said that could include adding a brigade of between 700 and 1,200 troops to the region in spring 2006, ready to take part in combat operations, in addition to the PRT.

"If we were to put the additional brigade in, obviously it would be part of Operation Enduring Freedom," he said, using the name of Washington's anti-terrorism drive in Afghanistan.

If the combat brigade is sent in, Graham said the Kabul-based peacekeepers would likely come home, although those being sent to Kandahar would remain.

He emphasized, however, that the exact Canadian role in Kandahar will depend on many factors, including the stability of the region, and it "is something that is being fleshed out at this time."

Canada supports the U.S. push to integrate the NATO mission in Iraq with the U.S.-led mission currently fighting remnants of the Taliban and al-Qaida, but is still studying how closely the two forces should be fused, Graham said.