OTTAWA - Canada's military spending in the current budget year has reached its highest point since the end of World War II, a think tank report said Wednesday.

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Canada is the 13th largest military spender in the world and the 6th largest within the 28-member NATO alliance, according to the study released by the Canadian Center for Policy Alternatives.

The report said that Canada would spend at least 22.3 billion Canadian dollars (about $23.02 billion) on its military forces in the 2010-11 fiscal year, an increase of 54 percent over the level 10 years ago.

It is believed that Canada's mission in Afghanistan has absorbed a significant part of the recent increases in military spending, at the cost of its ability to contribute to United Nations peacekeeping operations and non-military actions.

Canada, which had been among the top contributors to UN peace support missions, currently contributes just 56 military personnel and ranks 60th on the list of 102 contributing countries.

"Canada could make a much greater contribution to global security and humanitarian action by shifting resources to non-military security efforts and to peacekeeping operations," said Bill Robinson, main author of the study and a senior advisor with the Rideau Institute.

If military budget build-up were spent instead on foreign aid and on resources for climate change aid, it would enable Canada truly a great power in global development and humanitarian cause, said the researcher.

"This is an arena in which Canada could  'punch above its weight' on an issue crucial to human welfare and global security," he added.