OTTAWA — NDP Leader Jack Layton says Canada should pull its troops out of Afghanistan by February because the mission has gone astray.

Sniping at both Prime Minister Stephen Harper and President George W. Bush, Layton said the Afghan mission has lost its direction.

It has no clear goals, no exit strategy and no criteria to judge success, he said at a news conference Thursday.

"This is not the right mission for Canada,'' he said. "There is no balance. In particular, it lacks a comprehensive rebuilding plan and commensurate development assistance.''

The focus in Afghanistan has changed from reconstruction to open war and Canada should have no part of it, he said.

"Stephen Harper wants to take Canada in the wrong direction.''

Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay quickly brushed off Layton's proposal.

"Canada will not go back on its word to its allies and people of Afghanistan to fight terrorism and help to develop and stabilize the region,'' he said.

MacKay pointed out that the Commons voted last spring to extend the Afghan mission to 2009.

"It's unfortunate that Mr. Layton cannot accept the will of Parliament.''

The NDP voted against that motion, but it passed with support from a splintered Liberal party.

Paul Manson, a retired general and president of the Conference of Defence Associations Institute, said Layton's suggestion would be a "catastrophe.''

Manson said he sensed "partisan politics at work here.''

"A precipitous, unilateral pullout by Canada, in the short term, would reflect very badly on Canada, but more importantly it would have a very serious effect on the people of Afghanistan,'' he said.

Both NATO allies and the Afghan people and government would feel betrayed, Manson said.

Layton moved to stave off predictable attacks by insisting that his party supports Canadian troops and multilateral efforts to fight terrorism.

But he says Canada needs an independent foreign policy that stresses international development, peace-building and human rights.

"Why are we blindly following the defence policy prescriptions of the Bush administration?''

That course has cost dozens of lives and billions of dollars with no end in sight, he said.

"Canadians want a foreign policy rooted in fact, not fear,'' he said. "One that is uniquely independent, not ideologically imported. And one that leads the world into peace, not follows the U.S. into wars.''

He said Canada should be working for a "comprehensive peace process'' involving all parties to the fighting in Afghanistan.

Manson said there is nothing to suggest that the Taliban insurgents want to negotiate anything.

"They simply want to return to power.''

The general said a general withdrawal by NATO would leave Afghans "once again facing the horrors they saw when the Taliban was in power.''