Australia puts security focus on oil and gas, trains

5.00pm

WENTWORTH, Australia - Unmanned spy planes will patrol Australia's remote offshore oil and gas resources and rail networks will have extra security under new campaign pledges made on Thursday ahead of the October 9 election.

National security and the US-led war on Iraq have become important election issues since last week's deadly car bombing outside Australia's embassy in Jakarta and an unconfirmed report that two Australians had been taken hostage in Iraq.

Defence Minister Robert Hill said Australia would test two unmanned aircraft in the next year before deciding on a model to watch over Australia's multi-billion dollar oil and gas reserves off its vast northwest coast.

"We have identified our oil infrastructure on the North West Shelf as a national strategic asset, which obviously we seek to protect with whatever capability we have," Hill said.

He said Australia was looking at two models which could stay in the air for up to 30 hours. Conservative Prime Minister John Howard, a staunch US ally, was expected to announce more security plans later in the day.

The Woodside Petroleum Ltd-operated North West Shelf joint venture off Western Australia state is underpinned by long-term contracts to supply liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Japan.

The joint venture also has a A$25 billion ($26.76 billion) agreement to supply LNG to energy-hungry China from 2006. More than 11 million tonnes of North West Shelf LNG is contracted each year to Japan, the world's biggest LNG importer.

Opposition Labor defence spokesman Kim Beazley said the government should expedite the unmaned aircraft trials and then go one step further by having the drones armed.

Australia's election has attracted international attention because it precedes two others likely to be fought largely on the issues of security and the war on terror -- the US presidential vote on November 2 and a British election expected in May or June.


Centre-left Labor, which has clashed with Howard's government over Australia's role in the US-led Iraq war, said it would invest A$30 million in upgrading security at rail networks if it wins office.

"We have seen incidents overseas where transport networks can be targeted in the war against terror and we need to ensure they are as safe as possible," said Labor leader Mark Latham, whose party is polling neck-and-neck with the government.

Experts estimate that almost one-third of all major terrorist events worldwide target transport networks, he told reporters.

Latham has said that, if he wins office, the 850 Australian troops in and around Iraq would be brought home by Christmas. Howard is adamant they will remain as long as they are needed.

Former US counter-terrorism chief Richard Clarke has said the rift between the major parties over Iraq could leave Australia open to attacks similar to the Madrid train bombings last March that killed 191 people three days before Spain's general election.


The outgoing pro-US government in Madrid was swept from power, and the incoming Socialists quickly pulled Spanish troops out of Iraq.

In an unauthenticated statement following last Thursday's Jakarta blast, which killed nine people and wounded 182, the al Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiah network warned Australia of more attacks if it did not pull its troops out of Iraq.

Canberra spent two days this week racing to account for all its citizens in Iraq after a group calling itself the Iraqi Islamic Secret Army said it had taken two Australians hostage and would execute them unless Howard withdrew the troops.

Australia's foreign office has now said that all 225 non-military Australians known to be in Iraq have been accounted for.

- REUTERS