Prime Minister Harper says Canada is responding to U-S requests for help in Iraq, not the other way around.

He calls ”bizarre” media reports that suggested Canada was the one seeking to ramp up its role.

And the PM says whatever role Canada ends up playing, it’ll do so with ”no reluctance” because the Islamic State group poses a significant threat to Canadian security.

Harper’s remarks follow confirmation from the U.S. ambassador to Canada that it’s Washington asking Canada to expand its role in the Middle East.

Bruce Heyman says the sequence of conversations and communications between the two countries – who asked what of whom –  is of no matter.

Heyman adds that the two countries have had ongoing conversations at the highest levels about how to collaborate on the crisis in northern Iraq.