Australian prime minister facing re-election after supporting Iraq war

CANBERRA, Australia -- Prime Minister John Howard will become the first of three allied leaders who launched the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq to face voters, having announced Sunday that Australians will go to the polls Oct. 9.\nThe date comes ahead of the U.S. presidential ballot Nov. 2 and British elections early next year.\nHoward, whose conservative coalition comfortably won a third, three-year term in November 2001 -- in the aftermath of the 9/11 al Qaeda attacks in the United States -- declared Sunday that trust will be the dominant issue of the election campaign.\nBut the Labor Party opposition is campaigning hard on opinion polls that suggest most Australians believe Howard misled them about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction -- one of the key justifications he gave for Australia's joining the invasion.\n"I can agree with the prime minister in saying the election is about trust, and people don't trust this government anymore, with good reason," Labor leader Mark Latham told reporters after Howard called the election.\nHoward's decision to send 2,000 troops to join U.S. and British forces in the invasion of Iraq triggered the biggest street protests in Australia since the Vietnam War. So far, Australia has had no casualties in Iraq.\nLabor opposed Australia's sending troops to support the U.S. invasion, and Latham, before he became party leader, described Bush as "the most dangerous U.S. president in living memory."\nSince taking over Labor in December, Latham has refrained from personally attacking Bush and vowed to maintain Australia's key defense alliance with Washington. But he also has pledged to bring home by Christmas many of the some 850 Australians in Iraq if his party wins.\nBush has condemned Labor's agenda as dangerous in public criticisms that political observers described as unprecedented interference by a U.S. president in Australian domestic politics.\nHoward, for his part, has vowed to keep Australian troops in Iraq as long as they are needed and wanted by the Iraqis. He argues that Australia won respect around the world through its Iraq policy and involvement in the war on terror.\n"Who do you trust to lead the fight on Australia's behalf against international terrorism?" he asked at a press conference in Canberra.\nThe split over Iraq has echoes of the run-up to Spain's elections earlier this year, marred by the Madrid train bombings that killed 191. The terror attack on the eve of the Spanish vote was seen as an attempt to influence the election. The Socialist Party won on a campaign pledge to pull troops from Iraq -- and it swiftly made good on that promise.\nHoward also is fighting on his government's strong economic record: Unemployment is near record lows and the economy has grown for 13 straight years. He brands Labor a tax-and-spend party that will likely drive up interest rates.\nLabor says it wants to spend more on education and health but says it can do both without raising the overall tax burden.\nIf Howard wins, he will become Australia's second-longest serving leader, behind his political hero, Robert Menzies.\nA win for Latham, 43, would make him one of the country's youngest prime ministers. Less than a year after taking over its leadership, he has already breathed new life into the ailing Labor Party, which has been out of government since 1996.