A Canadian soldier serving under NATO has died from a roadside bomb in Taliban-plagued southern Afghanistan, the alliance said Thursday.

NATO''s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) did not give an exact location for Wednesday''s death of Lieutenant Andrew Nuttal, who Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper hailed as "a professional soldier who was dedicated to providing stability for the Afghan people."

Harper said in offering his "sincere and heartfelt sympathy and condolences" to Nuttall''s family that an Afghan soldier was killed and an ISAF interpreter was injured in the same incident.

"The impact of this news is especially profound during the holiday season and will be felt in households across the country," he added.

Most of the 2,800 Canadian troops are deployed in southern Kandahar province, a hotbed of the insurgency.

The Canadian soldier''s death took this year''s international military casualties in Afghanistan to 503, according to an AFP tally based on independent website icasualties.org, which tracks military deaths in Afghanistan and Iraq.