This is indeed most *excellent* news !

yes siree yes indeeeeeedy do !

Maybe now we can be more like Canada and NZ and totally ignore
Septic Imperialism.......

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DaarkSyde@home.com wrote in message

Canberra defies troop call
By Patrick Walters and wires
August 25, 2003

AUSTRALIA is resisting overtures from Washington to consider a fresh
contribution to coalition forces in Iraq as US officials publicly
acknowledge a deteriorating security environment.


Australian troops land in the Solomons / File


While government sources stress that no formal request has been made
in recent days, US officials continue to informally raise the issue of
further peacekeeping contributions from Australia.

The Government insists it will not reconsider its defence contribution
to Iraq, with Prime Minister John Howard saying Australia did its
share before and during the Iraq war.

Australia has close to 1000 defence force personnel in the Iraq
theatre, including troops on security duties and RAAF air traffic
controllers in Baghdad, and a navy frigate on patrol in the Gulf.

Australia and Britain have undertaken a comprehensive review of the
security of their diplomatic precincts in Baghdad following last
week's bomb blast at the UN headquarters and fresh warnings of
terrorist attacks in the Iraqi capital.

British diplomats were evacuated from their mission to the more secure
coalition military compound a day after last week's UN bombing amid
rumours of a possible terrorist attack.

Australian officials are not planning to move from their offices, in a
building that was formerly the Australian ambassador's residence.

The British compound is not considered as secure as the Australian
Representative Office, which is located in a quiet street in the
Babylon district, south of the city centre.

About 75 highly trained Australian soldiers guard the Australian
office, and diplomatic personnel stay at a nearby hotel.

A number of planned visits by Australians to Baghdad this week,
including one by Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Kevin Rudd, have
been postponed for security reasons.

US civil administrator Paul Bremer warned at the weekend that Iraq had
become one of the battlefields in the US-declared war on terror, in
the aftermath of the suicide attack on the UN headquarters.

The blast killed 23 people, including the UN's special representative
to Iraq, Sergio Vieira de Mello.

"It is now unfortunately the case that Iraq has become one of the
fields of battle in this global war" on terror, Mr Bremer told
reporters.

His comments came shortly after President George W.Bush vowed in a
hard-hitting weekly radio address that the US would target radical
groups anywhere in the world.

"The terrorists have declared war on every free nation and all our
citizens," he said.

"Their goals are clear. They want more governments to resemble the
oppressive Taliban that once ruled Afghanistan."

A further indicator of the more troubled security situation in Iraq
came last night when terrorists detonated a bomb outside the house of
one of the country's most important Shi'ite clerics, Mohammed Saeed
al-Hakim.

Three guards were killed and 10 others wounded when a wired gas
cylinder exploded outside al-Hakim's house in the city of Najaf.
Al-Hakim, a member of Iraq's US-picked Governing Council, suffered
only a few scratches to his neck.

This followed the deaths on Saturday of three British military police
in the southern port of Basra. The three were in a two-vehicle convoy
when they were attacked by men in a truck armed with rocket launchers,
grenades and automatic weapons.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan suggested at the weekend that the
Security Council could mandate a new multinational force in Iraq with
the US as the largest contributor.

A new UN-mandated force would imply "not just burden-sharing, but also
sharing decisions and responsibilities with the others", he said.

"If that doesn't happen, I think it's going to be very difficult to
get a second resolution that will satisfy everybody."