OTTAWA, Aug. 29 (Xinhua) -- Canadian Defense Minister Gordon O'Connor kicked off a trip to Afghanistan earlier Tuesday in a bid to boost troops morale amid rising fatalities of Canadian soldiers recently.

    "(His) second visit to Afghanistan is to ensure that the government of Canada is doing everything it can to support Canadian forces in their mission to stabilize and reconstruct Afghanistan," O'Connor's spokesman, Etienne Allard, told reporters.

    During his three-day visit, O'Connor will meet with Canadian troops and diplomats, as well as local and provincial government officials, "to get a local perspective about how the mission is proceeding."

    He will also meet with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Wardack in Kabul, after which he will head to Pakistan for talks with officials, Allard said.

    Canada deployed 2,300 troops in Kandahar in southern Afghanistan as part of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) fighting Taliban militants ousted by the U.S. forces in 2001.

    A total of 27 Canadian soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan, eight of them died in August. Enditem