Howard blasts US presidential candidate Obama over Iraq policy

Feb 11, 2007, 8:23 GMT

Sydney - Australian Prime Minister John Howard blasted US senator and presidential hopeful Barack Obama on Sunday saying his ascension to the White House would hand a victory to terrorists.

Obama formally launched his bid Saturday for the Democratic candidacy to become the first black US president. In his speech, Obama also offered a plan to withdraw US troops from Iraq by March 2008.

'I think that would just encourage those who wanted completely to destabilize and destroy Iraq, and create chaos and victory for the terrorists to hang on and hope for an Obama victory,' Howard told local television.

'If I was running al-Qaeda in Iraq, I'd put a circle around March 2008, and pray, as many times as possible, for a victory not only for Obama, but also for the Democrats,' he added.

But Howard appeared to confuse the senator's stump-speech proposal with the US presidential election itself, which will not be held until November 2008. The winner of that election would be inaugurated in January 2009.

The opposition Labor Party said Howard's tirade against Obama was unprecedented.

'It's the first time that I can recall that an Australian prime minister has engaged in American politics in such a partisan way ... actually telling American people what side of politics they should vote for,' Labor foreign affairs spokesman Robert McClelland said.

'It's most inappropriate, it demeans the Australia-United States alliance to suggest it is a relationship between political parties rather than an enduring relationship between two people.'

The veteran prime minister, described by President George Bush as a 'man of steel' for committing Australian troops for the invasion of Iraq, has vowed to stay in Iraq with the US.

'There's no way by March 2008, which is a little over a year from now, everything will have been stabilized so that America can get out in March 2008,' Howard said. 'And, if America is defeated in Iraq, the hope of ever getting a Palestinian settlement will be gone.'

Opposition leader Kevin Rudd said that if Labor won government at the general election later this year it would bring Australian troops home. But he would not commit to a timetable.

'All I'm saying is we'll be taking those troops out of there but we'll do so in close consultation with our American ally,' Rudd said.