KABUL — The role of international forces in Afghanistan is about to change, says the top Canadian soldier in the war-torn country.

In a pre-Christmas address to the troops Tuesday, Maj.-Gen. Andrew Leslie told Canadian Forces soldiers at Camp Julien that some coalition countries are about to move from guarding the peace to actively enforcing it in areas outside Kabul.

He hinted that could mean not just patrolling the streets while Afghanistan's landmark constitutional convention is underway, but also hunting down the so-called bad guys -- Taliban and al Qaida insurgents that are threatening to disrupt the peace.

"Taliban, al-Qaida and HIG (Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin) are now targeting the soft targets ... school children, middle management, lightly armed police forces," Leslie told several hundred soldiers who gathered around him in a cold wind at the base's parade square.

"A bunch of us think that this may be desperation measures on their part."

Leslie also predicted NATO and other forces will be in Afghanistan for at least five years -- and possibly for a decade -- and that it could take two generations for Afghanistan to rebuild itself as a nation.

"Right now people are talking a minimum of five years," said Leslie, the deputy commander of the International Security Assistance Force, or ISAF.

"My estimate is 10 as a minimum."

Leslie couldn't say how long Canadian soldiers would be in Afghanistan, but suggested they could remain longer than their original one-year mandate.

"The government's never said that we're pulling out in August," Leslie pointed out.

"They just said that, hey, we promise you 2,000 people for a year."

The general pointed to previous Canadian missions, in the former Yugoslavia and in Cyprus, that went well beyond their original timeframes.

"When a whole bunch of us first went into the former Yugoslavia we thought two or three years. And it's still going," Leslie noted.

"In Cyprus, I was on rotation 27, and that wasn't the last one."

Canadian soldiers from the Royal Canadian Regiment have almost completed their first six-month rotation in Kabul, which started in August. A new batch of troops from the Vandoos will begin arriving in late January through the middle of February when Canadian Lt.-Gen. Rick Hillier takes over command of ISAF.

Leslie told the soldiers he's pleased that ISAF is starting to shift its focus from Kabul to areas outside the Afghan capital.

ISAF announced last week that it will begin adopting provincial reconstruction teams outside Kabul. A German team that's already operating in Kunduz, about 400 kilometres north of the city, is scheduled to come under ISAF command Dec. 31.

Leslie later told reporters he hoped the capture of deposed Iraqi president Saddam Hussein will cause more world attention to turn to rebuilding Afghanistan.

"Now that Saddam Hussein is in the bag, hopefully attention will shift more towards Afghanistan," said Leslie.

"I'm not an expert on Iraq, but I can tell you that Afghanistan needs help. There's lots of NATO partners and allies who are in Iraq, and I wish more of them were here in Afghanistan."