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Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor says he and General Rick Hillier, the Chief of the Defence Staff, both understand the amount of time and work required to train Afghan troops and that any suggestion they have offered mixed messages is misguided.

Mr. O'Connor said two weeks ago that Canadian troops could "basically be in reserve" by early next year as Afghans are trained to carry out their own operations.

That statement seemed to be contradicted last Sunday by Gen. Hillier, who said the training process had just begun and it would take a long time for the Afghans to do the job independently.

But Mr. O'Connor, who was cornered by reporters yesterday in the Charlottetown hotel where the federal Conservative party is holding its summer retreat, said he and Gen. Hillier are of like mind in their assessment of the preparedness of Afghan troops.

"I never said that the army units would be trained within six months," the minister said. "I said that over the next six months, we will get four or five of these battalions to train. And if you check my words, word by word, I said that at some time in the future we will be able to go into some reserve state. But we don't know how long that is."

Mr. O'Connor said any information he has received about the mission comes directly from Gen. Hillier.

"Gen. Hillier and I are on line," Mr. O'Connor said. "I don't make this stuff up. ... It's the way you interpret our words."

Even after the Afghan army is capable of leading the fight against the Taliban, Canadian troops will still be on the front line, he said.

"These people go out with the Afghan army, they fight with the Afghan army. So it's a very dangerous mission," he said.

Critics, and even some prominent party members, have suggested that there are too many voices speaking about the Afghan mission, an unusual state of affairs for a government in which the Prime Minister's Office exerts extreme control over the message.

Repeated clarifications and reversals have prompted much speculation that Mr. O'Connor would lose the defence post in a cabinet shuffle.

But yesterday morning, Mr. O'Connor was talking like a man who expected to oversee Canada's military for some time into the future.

"In the 18 months that we have left in this current commitment, as currently defined, there will be more and more emphasis on the operational training of the Afghan army," he told reporters.

When the Canadians arrived in Kandahar province, there were very small numbers of Afghan troops. But there is now an effective battalion and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization forces are halfway to meeting their goal of 70,000 trained soldiers by 2010.

"That's ultimately the exit strategy for all of NATO," Mr. O'Connor said. "When the government is stable, when it can deliver services, economic development is going ahead and the security forces of the army and police are effective, they are looking after their own country."

As to extending the mission beyond its current end date, the minister said the Conservative government realizes that it will have to reach a consensus with two of the three federal opposition parties.

"We have to take into account what the Liberal position is, what the Bloc position is," Mr. O'Connor said. But there will be no point in listening to the NDP, he said, "because they want us home, no matter what."