Canadian soldiers have faced intensifying Taliban aggression on their mission in southern Afghanistan. But the UN envoy in Kabul says the troops are directly "in the eye of storm" and most of the country is relatively calm.

"What we're seeing now is an intense effort to root out the remaining militants near Kandahar, Christopher Alexander told CTV's Question Period.  "The resources devoted to countering the insurgency are much greater now."

Alexander has been in Afghanistan since 2003, first as Canada's ambassador, then as the United Nations deputy special representative of the secretary-general.

If efforts to counter Taliban aggression continue, "there should be a fighting chance for law and order to have the upper hand," Alexander said.

But, Alexander points out, "we can't, with any confidence, say the insurgency is diminishing."

Canadian troops are in the thick of some of the most aggressive combat seen yet in the region.  "In the late winter and the spring, the insurgency hit Afghanistan's southern provinces much harder than it did in 2005," Alexander said.

This upsurge in attacks shocked many Canadians, accustomed over the years to the image of our soldiers as peacekeepers. But, Canadians stationed in Kandahar "have been in the eye of the storm," Alexander said.

"A lot of what international forces are doing in the country is more like peacekeeping and if Canadians are in combat from time to time, it's because they're well-regarded among the best troops here ... Canadians are really one of the only contingencies in the country that have seen acute fighting of this kind," Alexander notes.

The intense violence is restricted to about one-quarter of Afghanistan. Life in the rest of the country is peaceful most days and people are trying to rebuild, Alexander said.

The Conservative government recently announced it will pull troops out of Afghanistan in February 2009. But many critics question if that will provide enough time to prepare the Afghanistan's police and army forces.

The best chances for peace lie with an increasingly strong national army and NATO's plan to take command of the southern provinces August 1.

Canadians must stay the course until the local army is prepared, otherwise, "we'd be leaving hundreds of thousands, eventually millions of people at the mercy of a very repressive regime that we know only too well from 2001."

Alexander also called for international co-operation, particularly with Pakistani government officials over the cross-border insurgency movement. 

"Afghans want their international partners to help them. There is no stepping back."

U.S Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld visited Afghanistan recently and discussed his concern the over the spike in violence with President Hamid Karzai, who stressed his country needed continued support, particularly to strengthen its police force.