US: The United States will maintain close relations with Australia even if a new government withdraws Australian troops from Iraq, the US Secretary of State, Mr Colin Powell, said.
He reiterated statements by President Bush that the withdrawal of Australian troops by a Labour government, that might win in a election later this year, would be "disastrous".
But in an interview with Australian Broadcasting Corporation television, Mr Powell stopped short of Deputy Secretary of State Mr Richard Armitage's recent statement that withdrawal of Australian troops could put the countries' 53-year-old alliance at risk. "Australia will always be a close friend of the US and we are participating in so many ways with Australia and in so many different areas," Mr Powell said in the interview broadcast yesterday.
"We would always have discussions with whoever the prime minister of Australia is and we will always respect the decision of the Australian people as to how they would be led or the policies their leader would pursue," he said.
Last Thursday, Mr Armitage asked Australians to imagine what life would be like without the alliance with the US and without close sharing of intelligence on security threats.
The conservative government of Prime Minister Mr John Howard, a strong supporter of the US-led invasion of Iraq, has 850 soldiers in and around Iraq and has stated they will be kept there "until the job is done".
Labour opposition leader Mr Mark Latham says he will bring the troops home by Christmas.
"If Australian troops were removed from the campaign effort we have underway now in Iraq, it would be a disaster, a political disaster," Mr Powell said.
"It would be disastrous for Australia to say 'Well, we see this international consensus, we see this new (UN) resolution but we are going to head for the door'," he said from Washington.
"I don't think that's the Australia that I have known and respected for so many decades."
Mr Latham, elected as Labour leader six months ago and neck-and-neck with Mr Howard's government in polls ahead of elections later this year, is standing by his troop withdrawal policy despite US pressure. "Our policy hasn't changed," he said this weekend.
Mr Latham denied that the possibility of keeping some Australian troops in Iraq after Christmas to protect Australian officials represented a watering down of his policy.
Australian Labour Party president Ms Carmen Lawrence accused the US of trying to help Mr Howard's government by attacking Mr Latham. "I think they're probably working to support Mr Howard," she said.
Mr Howard, a close friend of President Bush, is facing a battle to retain office after heading the government for eight years.