AUSTRALIA: Australia's opposition Labor leads but is losing ground to the government in the run-up to an October 9th election, according to a poll trend released yesterday as terror fears overshadowed a closely fought campaign.
Prime Minister Mr John Howard and Labor leader Mr Mark Latham have been trading blows over how best to wage the war on terror, which has become a key issue during the six-week election campaign, and the pair have clashed repeatedly over the US-led war on Iraq.
Mr Latham said before the election was called he wants Australia's 850 troops in and around Iraq home by Christmas but Mr Howard is adamant they will stay as long as they are needed.
The Reuters Poll Trend, a smoothed average of three newspaper polls that removes volatility, showed centre-left Labor's lead over the conservative government fell 1.5 points to 3.1 points .
"October 9th will be a referendum on who can better manage the Australian economy and keep this country strong during a time of international terrorism - they are the two dominant issues of the election," Mr Howard told reporters yesterday. Renewing security concerns, Attorney-General Mr Philip Ruddock said Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the suspected mastermind of the September 11th, 2001, attacks on the US, was granted a tourist visa for Australia a month before the airline strikes on New York and Washington.
"He used a false name to gain an Australian tourist visa in August 2001.
"The alias under which he sought to come was not known to our authorities at that time. After the alias became known the visa was cancelled," Mr Ruddock told Australian radio.
"(The visa) had not been used and we have no record of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed having travelled to Australia under his own name or any of his known aliases," he said.
Mohammed was captured in Pakistan in March last year and is in US custody. Jack Roche, the first man convicted under Australia's new anti-terror laws, named Mohammed during his trial this year as his contact during a 2000 trip to Pakistan and Afghanistan for training with al-Qaeda.
A deadly suicide car bomb outside Australia's embassy in Jakarta this month snapped attention away from Australia's robust economy, one of the industrialised world's strongest, and back onto security and the war on Iraq. - (Reuters)