John Howard in damage control

John Howard

CANBERRA - Australia's Prime Minister John Howard yesterday moved to shore up his position and contain damage to Australia's relationship with Indonesia following his defeat on new barriers against asylum seekers.

Howard dumped laws that would have seen asylum seekers held offshore and denied access to Australian law rather than face a humiliating defeat in the Senate.

The defeat became inevitable when Coalition senators announced their intention to oppose the legislation, erasing the Government's slender Upper House majority.

Accepting the first real blow to his authority in a decade of power, Howard said he could see no point in prolonging the debate once the senators' intentions became clear.

The failure to further boost border security coincided with news that eight Chinese asylum seekers had been found on the remote Ashmore Reef off Western Australia.

The group will be taken to Christmas Island for medical checks before being transferred to a detention centre on Nauru.

They will not have access to the Australian legal system because Christmas Island was legally excised from the mainland under earlier legislation to prevent asylum seekers reaching Australia.

Immigration Minister senator Amanda Vanstone said the arrival of the asylum seekers on Ashmore Reef emphasised the need for the failed law.

But Labor, the Democrats, Greens and church and community groups welcomed the withdrawal of the legislation and denied that it would encourage a new flood of boat people.

In Indonesia, the news of Howard's defeat met with regret.

The failed laws had been drawn up to placate Jakarta after Canberra granted asylum to 43 asylum seekers from the Indonesian province of West Papua.