Canada's military is stretched too thin to send troops to Iraq, but Ottawa would consider helping supervise the elections there in January, Prime Minister Paul Martin said Sunday.

In an interview on CNN's "Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer," Martin said that if asked, Canada is prepared to carry out training for the elections, and would also participate in the supervision of the election monitoring.

"Elections are very complicated processes if you have not been through them," Martin told Blitzer.

"We're prepared to participate in the supervision of the monitoring. This is an area in which Canada has a great deal of expertise."

He said no official requests have been made yet.

When asked about playing a military role in Iraq, Martin said the Canadian military is already stretched too thin, and could be taking on a new role in Afghanistan, and in African nations.

"We are increasing our troops going into Afghanistan. We are in Haiti, we are being asked to look at sending advisers into certain parts of Africa," he said.

"Our commitments are such that it would be very hard for us to commit troops into Iraq, especially with the potential reconstruction we are about to take on in Afghanistan.

When pushed on the issue, Martin said deployment would depend "on where we are asked to go."

"Iraq is very, very important. But so is Afghanistan," he said. "Canada intends to play a role where it can play a significant one."

Reacting to Martin's remarks, NDP Leader Jack Layton said: "It sounded to me like a lot of waffling answers. And it's unfortunate because the American people are going to wonder: where does Canada really stand now?"

Layton said Martin should have given a categorical "no" to Canadian troops in Iraq.

The big picture

The CNN interview with Martin comes just days after U.S. President George Bush made his first official visit to Canada.
 
The visit was seen partly as an attempt to warm relations between the two countries, which were damaged after former prime minister Jean Chretien decided against sending Canadian troops to join the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq.

In the CNN interview, Martin was asked about Canada's relationship with the U.S. in light of anti-Bush protests, which included the burning of the American flag.

"The very kinds of actions that you've been talking about in terms of the American flag I've seen on television, probably on CNN, the same kind of actions took place in the United States where people were outraged," Martin fired back.

The prime minister said there has been disagreements with the United States, and expects there will be future ones. "But that doesn't mean there isn't a huge bond our friendships between our countries," Martin said.

During last week's visit, there had been speculation that Bush might announce a timetable for an end to a U.S. ban on Canadian cattle products. That didn't happen.

The one issue that ended up grabbing headlines wasn't even on the official agenda: missile defence.

The topic was raised with Martin during talks in Ottawa last Tuesday, and publicly on Wednesday when Bush made a major foreign policy speech to an audience at Halifax's Pier 21.

Martin responded by reiterating he was against the "weaponization of space."

With a report from CTV's Paula Newton