TORONTO - Ottawa's plan to focus on nuclear weapons and global security at a meeting of the G8 foreign ministers is too narrow and the discussion needs to be broadened to include education and peacekeeping, the opposition said Monday.

Canada will make nuclear non-proliferation, assistance to Afghanistan and Pakistan, and security vulnerabilities the centrepiece issues at the meeting in Gatineau, Que., that runs March 29-30.

Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon took those priorities, which he laid out in an interview with The Canadian Press last month, to a business audience Monday.

"Keeping the world safe matters a lot to Canadians.... whether they are at home or travelling abroad, and it matters for Canada's economy," Cannon said in a speech to the Economic Club of Canada.

"Our national interests are inextricably interconnected with those of the states around the globe."

Iran's increasing ability to build nuclear weapons is a grave threat to the region around it and the world, and North Korea's involvement with nuclear weapons defies the international community and must be addressed at the meeting, he said.

"Both these states are in contravention of their international obligations," said Cannon.

"They are a threat to the world and their own people, who are deprived of their fundamental human rights through intimidation and violence."

But NDP foreign affairs critic Paul Dewar said a number of other countries need to rein in their nuclear weapons capabilities as well. The United States and other nations already have many nuclear weapons even as Iran strives to build its first, he noted.

"Iran is obviously a concern for everyone, but when you look at who actually possesses nuclear weapons, there are many more in the hands of others," Dewar said in a telephone interview from Ottawa.

Any policy of nuclear non-proliferation must be a global strategy and consider restrictions on nuclear reactor sales, he added.

"We're on the cusp of selling more reactors," he said.

"We know what happened when we sold reactors in the past to India -- that was used by them to design nuclear weapons. So what safeguards are there on that?" he said.

A spokeswoman for Cannon said the minister disagrees with "Dewar, who apparently holds the United States and India in the same light as the Iranian regime."

"On Afghanistan, we continue to be focussed on clear objectives consistent with Afghan objectives and the efforts of the international community -- including building democratic institutions, basic services such as education and support for human rights," Catherine Loubier said.

Cannon told the business audience the unstable border between Afghanistan and Pakistan should be addressed as well as the latter's attempts to "weed out evil extremism."

That's certainly a priority, agreed Dewar, who added Cannon should also focus on Canadian involvement once our combat troops are pulled out of Afghanistan in 2011.

In particular, he said, there should be more support for democratic governance, human rights and education.

"There's a huge opportunity for us to help in education," Dewar said.

"Is that something (Cannon) sees as a priority?"

The minister identified the need to co-ordinate security efforts to reduce other countries' vulnerabilities.

"Global stability and security are affected by conflict, terrorism, crime and trafficking in illegal drugs," he said, speaking to the government's third priority for the G8 meeting.

"Many countries ... lack the effective institutions-police, courts, corrections, border controls - that are essential to maintain security and respect for human rights."

But Dewar suggested one way of helping vulnerable countries would be for Canada to take up the peacekeeping role it performed from the 1960s until the focus changed to a combat role.

"One thing Canadians would like to see is Canada getting back into peacekeeping," he said, adding there are peacekeeping missions needed in both Congo and Sudan.

However, the federal government's approach reflects Canadian values and aims to keep this generation and the next one safe, said Cannon.