Canada quietly and successfully lobbied China last year to allow the UN to extend its peacekeeping mission in Haiti for another 12 months, say newly released documents.

Despite the Harper government's frosty relations with Beijing since coming to power in January 2006, U.S. State Department documents show that Canadian interlocutors played a significant role in getting China to agree to a one-year mission extension last October.

As one of five permanent members of the UN Security Council, China held the power to veto an extension of the mission.

Canada broached the issue of extending the UN mission last year.