OTTAWA — Canada’s armed forces are fully deployed and cannot contribute to the call for more NATO troops for Afghanistan, says Canada’s top soldier.

“We’re at a point of being able to sustain what we’re doing,” Gen. Walter Natynczyk told reporters. “To be able to ramp up and ramp down is pretty difficult in terms of troops and where they are in training and so on.”

Natynczyk said he hasn’t yet been asked for Canada to supply more troops and he doesn’t expect to get a call.

“We haven’t received a request for a plus up because I think ... our allies appreciate what we have done already to plus up.”

Natynczyk’s comments come as NATO foreign ministers begin a two-day meeting during which they will discuss U.S President Barack Obama’s call for up to 10,000 NATO troops to join the 30,000 additional soldiers the U.S. is sending to Afghanistan.

So far, more than 20 countries have expressed willingness to send a total of more than 5,000 additional troops.

elizabeth.thompson@sunmedia.ca