Prime Minister Stephen Harper said there will be no parliamentary vote on Canada's role in Afghanistan unless an opposition party supports his desire to extend the mission after February 2009.

Harper told reporters after the APEC Summit in Sydney, Australia that he feels no need for an immediate debate or vote.

"My obvious preference would be that Canada finish the job before we leave," he said. "But I don't see the necessity of rushing into a vote unless we're able to have a situation where a vote would be successful."

Canadian troops have been in Afghanistan since late 2001 and began their current assignment in insurgent-ridden Kandahar province in February 2006.

The Liberal Opposition -- which sent Canadian troops to Afghanistan while in government -- wants to introduce a motion early in the fall session of Parliament that will seek a vote to confirm Canada's military mission will end as scheduled.

The Canadian mission had originally been scheduled to end in February 2007, but in May 2006, Parliament voted 149-145 to extend it for another two years.

The Bloc Quebecois wants to see the mission end in February 2009, and the NDP has called for Canada's combat role in Afghanistan to end immediately.

In an interview broadcast Sept. 1 on CTV's Question Period, Defence Minister Peter MacKay said NATO knows it cannot count on Canada's troops remaining in Kandahar province after February 2009.

"The signal that has been sent already is that our current configuration will end in February, 2009. Obviously the aid work and the diplomatic effort and presence will extend well beyond that. The Afghan compact itself goes until 2011," he said.

"But the way the mission is currently configured, with respect to our presence in Kandahar, there is an expiration date that has been set."

A spokesman later said that the minister meant that NATO knows the Canadian mission is scheduled to end in 2009, and that a parliamentary vote is required for an extension.

Liberal Leader Stephane Dion accused the Tories of trying to confuse Canadians on where they really stood.

"It's always a problem when a politician flip flops but when lives are at stake, it is inexcusable," Dion told reporters at Vancouver airport. "What the prime minister is trying to do is to ensure that the combat issue will continue after February 2009 and he's trying to go there with a lack of transparency and a lack of coherency.

"In doing so he's not helping our troops, he's not helping our allies, he's not helping the people of Afghanistan and he's not acting as a leader as he should,"

Parliament resumes sitting on Oct. 16.

Dion said Harper's position on Afghanistan in his throne speech might dictate whether or not he has the Liberals' support.

"If the Prime Minister is saying now that it will not have any vote on the combat mission in Kandahar and he's not clarifying that Canada will say to our allies that the combat mission will end in February 2009 then there's no way we will support such a throne speech," he said.

NATO and Afghanistan

On Saturday, a top NATO official said NATO's success as a military alliance doesn't depend on success in the Afghanistan mission.

"I would say to you that Afghanistan is, as I've already mentioned, a very important part of how we do business and job one, but from our perspective it's not the make or break that perhaps is envisioned by people," Gen. Ray Henault, a Canadian and chair of NATO's military committee, told a news conference in Victoria, B.C.

"We need to succeed in Afghanistan," said Henault. "NATO is an important factor there. It's providing some capability and it's providing things for people there that are very important. If you look at the statistics with what we've done there in terms of the thousands of kilometres of roads that have been put in place, the millions of children that are in school."

Chiefs of defence from all 26 NATO nations met in Victoria to talk about planning NATO operations.

Henault didn't say much about the possibility that Canada's troops might not be available for a combat role in Afghanistan after February 2009 or how NATO might respond.

"Canada wasn't the only focus of problems in that respect," he said.

With files from The Canadian Press