Security scare at Australian PM office

CANBERRA, Dec 21 (Reuters) Two workers were evacuated from an office of Australian Prime Minister John Howard today after the discovery of an unidentified substance prompted a security scare.

Howard was in the office at the time, but officials would not comment on whether he was evacuated.

The two workers found the substance, which emergency officials refused to identify for security reasons, in a basement mailroom of Mr Howard's Sydney office building. They were later cleared of contamination.

''The basement was sealed off and the two workers were decontaminated before being assessed by ambulance staff and being allowed to return to work,'' Fire Brigades Superintendent Jason Clough said.

A second security scare also occurred at Parliament House in the capital Canberra when a white powder was found in the office of Foreign Minister Alexander Downer, who is currently in Britain. The area was cordoned off and emergency crews removed a white barrel from the site.

It was unclear if the two events were related. Howard's spokesman declined to comment.

Australia, a staunch US ally in the war on terrorism and in Iraq, has dramatically boosted security precautions following the September. 11, 2001, attacks on US soil and several bombings in neighbouring Indonesia since 2002.

The country has never suffered a major terrorist strike on home soil, although the government frequently warns of the danger of an attack.

Mr Howard, who faces an election in the second half of 2007, was this month forced to deny accusations he sought to distort the findings of laboratory tests after white powder later identified as flour was found in an envelope sent to the Indonesian embassy.

The incident last year sparked Australia's biggest biological terror scare, with the government describing the powder as a ''biological agent''.

REUTERS DKA PM1022