Australia PM accused of showing bias in US politics

CANBERRA, Feb 12 (Reuters) Australia's opposition leader criticised Prime Minister John Howard today for showing bias in the US election by criticising the Iraq policies of presidential aspirant Barack Obama.

The leader of Australia's centre-left Labor Party, Kevin Rudd, said Howard needed to avoid taking sides in American politics as it was important for the Australia-US alliance that leaders could deal with each other despite their political affiliations.

''Mr Howard sometimes puts his personal relationship with President Bush into a position where he gets in the road of some of Australia's national interests,'' Rudd told Australian television.

Australia's strong links to the United States and its support for the US-led war on Iraq were key issues for Howard's fourth straight election win in late 2004, and Howard's ties with George W. Bush are so close that he has been called his ''deputy sheriff'' in Asia.

Howard stood by his comments that Obama's plan to withdraw US combat troops by March 2008 would encourage terror groups and destabilise and destroy Iraq.

''I don't retract anything I've said,'' Howard told Australian parliament today. ''American defeat in Iraq would be a catastrophe for the West.'' Howard's remarks dominated debate in Australian parliament today as the conservative government gears up for elections later this year in which Australia's links with the United States and the war on Iraq are set to be key issues.

Australia has about 1,400 troops in and around Iraq, but the latest polls have found 62 percent of Australians are opposed to the government's handling of the war.

The polls have also recorded a surge in support for the Labor Party and Rudd, who has promised to withdraw Australian forces from Iraq if he wins power.

An ACNielsen poll published in the Sydney Morning Herald and Age newspapers on Monday found Labor under Rudd, who became leader in early December, led the government with 58 percent support to 42 per cent for Howard's conservatives.

Obama yesterday described Howard's criticism of his Iraq policy as ''a bunch of empty rhetoric'', and suggested Australia send another 20,000 troops to Iraq if Howard was seriously concerned about the war.

Howard said Australia's military contribution was ''very significant and appropriate''.

In the lead up to Australia's October 2004 election, Labor's then leader, Mark Latham, described Bush as the most dangerous president in American history, and promised to pull Australian forces out of Iraq by Christmas 2004 if he won power.

In June 2004, Bush criticised Labor's policy, saying it would ''embolden the enemy and dispirit those who love freedom in Iraq'', prompting accusations the US President was meddling in Australia's looming election campaign.

REUTERS PDM PM1127