Coalition refines policy on pre-emptive strikes

The policy of targeting terrorists is now a policy of pre-emption with "collaboration", John Howard said yesterday.

"I would always collaborate and operate in collaboration with neighbouring countries," he said.

However, he insisted this was not a change of policy as he would still act without consent of other governments if he had "no other alternative".

"None of it is directed against our friends in the region," he added.

Earlier, the Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, was at pains to point out that Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Malaysia would not be the target of pre-emptive strikes because they had their own "strong counter-terrorism capabilities".

Failed states such as the Solomons Islands would be more likely to be the subject of a pre-emptive strike if they were unable or unwilling to crack down on terrorists, he said.

When Mr Howard first spoke two years ago of making a pre-emptive attack on a sovereign state it was in response to a question about Jemaah Islamiah and Indonesia.

Labor accused him of having a contradictory policy.

"All this confusion, all this flip-flopping on national security is bad for the country," said the Labor leader, Mark Latham.

Labor's foreign affairs spokesman, Kevin Rudd, said the Government was undermining the prospects of co-operation in the region and playing politics with national security.

That allegation was given credibility by the Indonesian ambassador in Canberra, Imron Cotan, who yesterday said that at the time Mr Howard had first raised the idea of pre-emptive strikes two years ago, Mr Downer had called in diplomats from 10 countries around the region and assured the pre-emption policy was an "internal political debate" and not actual policy.

"They said it was a debate between two political parties and that the concept was still being developed," Mr Cotan told the Herald.

"They said they would not send any troops to Indonesia."

Mr Rudd said: "What we've had in public is John Howard sounding like Rambo on military pre-emption and, in private, Alexander Downer, the foreign minister, being tame as a pussy cat.

Mr Howard rejected any suggestion the Government was saying one thing in private and another in public on the pre-emption issue.

On Monday Malaysia's Deputy Prime Minister, Najib Razak, rejected the proposal outright, asking that Australia respect his country's sovereignty.

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