OTTAWA - The country's top military commander is representing Canada at a White House meeting where U.S. President Barack Obama will discuss the unfolding campaign against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.
Gen. Tom Lawson is expected to get more information on where Canada's CF-18s will fit into the U.S.-led mission against the terrorist network that has seized a vast swath of territory in Iraq and Syria.
The Pentagon has been hosting two days of meetings where coalition countries are co-ordinating strategy.
Separately, Defence Minister Rob Nicholson met Sunday with U.S. counterpart Chuck Hagel on the sidelines of a defence conference in Lima, Peru.
Most of the meeting was taken up with discussion about ISIL, according to defence officials on both sides of the border.
In a statement, Nicholson said Canada remains "very concerned" with the group's growing presence throughout the Middle East, as well as the "direct threat" of terrorism at home and abroad.
A Pentagon spokesman, Rear Admiral John Kirby, says the two also discussed the increasing number of foreign fighters who are flocking to ISIL.
