OTTAWA — Canadian soldiers will not be asked to pay back what bureaucrats call an "overpayment" of danger pay received for their participation in the ongoing mission to train Afghan forces.

Defence Minister Peter MacKay intervened Monday, following media reports that about 100 soldiers received a letter ordering each them to pay back up to $1,600 they received by mistake.

"This issue results from an administrative error and not from any fault on the part of these soldiers," MacKay said in an e-mail sent by his office. "It would not be right to penalize these families for the department's error, so we will not be asking soldiers to pay back the difference. Our government is eternally grateful for the dedication and sacrifice by our men and women in uniform who serve and protect our country."

The letter demanding soldiers reimburse the defence department is separate from the recent controversy over a recommendation to cut the level of danger pay military personnel get.

Earlier this month, a department committee that sets danger pay tried to chop the hardship bonus that soldiers get for service in Afghanistan by $500 per month.

That forced the Prime Minister's Office to get involved and order bureaucrats to re-think the decision and "consider all the factors" before imposing the cut.

Canada's combat mission in Afghanistan ended in 2011.

There still are more than 900 military personnel in northern Afghanistan, well away from the front lines, training Afghan forces to take on Islamists.

That mission runs until 2014.

— with files from Jessica Murphy