(Releads with government pressing Kabul, opposition anger)

By David Ljunggren

OTTAWA, April 25 (Reuters) - Canada's government, under increasing pressure over allegations that Afghan authorities torture prisoners handed over by Canadian troops, said on Wednesday it had demanded answers from Kabul.

The announcement by Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor was a marked change in tone from Ottawa, which has until now played down the allegations and referred to them as rumors.

O'Connor spoke hours after a newspaper published a secret internal report showing the minority Conservative government was aware last year that detainees were regularly abused in Afghanistan.

International conventions prevent a country from handing over prisoners if there is reason to suspect possible abuse. One leading expert on international law says if the allegations are proven, then Canada is guilty of war crimes.

"Canadian officials have expressed our concerns both to the Afghan government and the Afghan independent human rights commission," O'Connor told Parliament's foreign affairs committee.

"We have strongly urged them to investigate the allegations and, if required, to take corrective actions. This is an issue that the Canadian forces, Canada and our international partners take very seriously," he said.

The Globe and Mail newspaper on Monday reported it had talked to 30 suspected Taliban militants who say they were beaten, whipped and mistreated by Afghan authorities after being handed over by Canadian troops.

The story increased the uneasiness felt by many opposition legislators about the 2,500-strong Canadian mission in the southern city of Kandahar. Canada has lost 54 soldiers so far, nine in the last two weeks.

Leaders of the two smallest opposition parties on Wednesday said they would not exclude introducing a motion of no-confidence in the government over the issue.

If all three opposition parties voted together, the government would be defeated and a new election would be called. The Liberals, the largest of the three, were cool to the idea, saying that for the time being they would continue to insist on O'Connor's resignation.

Opposition leaders say they are particularly unhappy with what they see as the flippant tone taken by Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who has accused his critics of caring more about suspected Taliban members than about Canada's troops.

O'Connor said he had not read the secret report on human rights in Afghanistan prepared by the foreign ministry, which said "extrajudicial executions, disappearances, torture and detention without trial are all too common".

In response, Liberal legislator Ujjal Dosanjh accused O'Connor of engaging in a "massive colossal systematic cover-up" of what was really happening on the ground.

Critics complain that Canadian troops are spending far too much time fighting the Taliban and not enough on helping rebuild the country.

Parliament on Tuesday voted 150 to 134 against a nonbinding motion calling for the soldiers to be withdrawn in February 2009 as scheduled. Ottawa says the mission will end on time, but opposition parties suspect the troops will stay longer.

The NATO-led mission was supposed to end in February 2007 but in May 2006 the Conservatives persuaded Parliament to approve a two-year extension.

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