Book prompts new strains in Australian government

CANBERRA, July 19 (Reuters) A new political biography reopened leadership tensions between Australia's prime minister and his ambitious deputy today, months out from an election which the polls say the conservatives are set to lose.

In a new biography of Prime Minister John Howard, Treasurer Peter Costello snipes at Howard's record as a former treasurer, while the book says Costello has never been invited to dine at an official prime ministerial residence in 11 years in office.

''It doesn't worry me, I am just as happy eating fish and chips on a beach,'' Costello told Australian radio today as he played down the idea of new divisions over the leadership.

Elections are due in Australia within five months with opinion polls suggesting Howard would be overwhelmingly defeated and could lose his own seat if an election were held now.

Costello, 50 next month, has long been Howard's heir apparent, but his hopes of taking over as prime minister were crushed in July 2006 when Howard, who turns 68 next week, said he would seek a fifth term in office.

The latest developments come three days after Howard convened a special cabinet meeting to discuss the continued poor polling, where the prime minister asked his ministers if his leadership was part of the problem.

While government ministers have strongly supported Howard staying on to fight the next election, the Age newspaper yesterday said two government lawmakers believe Howard should step aside and hand over to Costello.

LONG RUNNING TENSION The new Howard biography, by two academics, will hit bookshops next week, but extracts published in Fairfax newspapers today underlined how the tensions between Howard and Costello have been simmering for several years.

The authors, who interviewed Costello for their book last year, said he blamed Howard's office for leaking a damaging internal party memo in 2001, which largely blamed Costello for the party's poor standing in the polls at the time.

The book said Costello had also expected Howard to stick to a leadership agreement the two men made in 1994 when they were still in opposition. The agreement was for Howard to hand over the leadership after one-and-a-half terms in government.

Howard won power in early 1996, has now won four consecutive elections, and has refused to consider retiring.

Costello also criticised Howard's record when he was treasurer under prime minister Malcolm Fraser, from 1977 to 1983, saying Howard did not do enough to push reform and deregulation.

''Howard, when he had been treasurer in the Fraser government, had not been a great reformer. The Howard treasurership was not a success in terms of interest rates and inflation,'' the book quotes Costello as saying.

Age newspaper political editor Michelle Grattan said the new book would leave readers wondering how Howard and Costello could continue to tolerate each other.

''The Treasurer has put a fresh grenade under an embattled government and huge strains on the relationship between its wo most important members,'' Grattan wrote.

Howard denied today that his office had leaked material damaging to Costello in 2001, and played down any ongoing rift.

''If we had not worked together, closely, for 11 years, we would not have the successful economy we now have,'' Howard told reporters in Adelaide.

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