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SYDNEY - Prime Minister John Howard yesterday locked Canberra even more deeply into United States defence planning with agreements that will give Australia access to America's most potent military technology, increase joint training and widen intelligence sharing.
In a meeting with President George W. Bush, Howard also signed up to an international bid to develop a new generation of fast-breeder nuclear reactors in the belief that nuclear energy will play a key role in managing climate change.
Howard has already agreed to sell uranium to China and India - despite India's refusal to join the nuclear non-proliferation treaty - and is expected to allow sales to Russia after signing a nuclear safeguards agreement with President Vladimir Putin in one of the series of bilateral meetings built around this week's Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.
Speaking after their one-on-one meeting, Howard and Bush also emphasised their resolve to remain in Iraq, with Bush passionately arguing that success there was essential for the security of both Australia and the US.
"One way to defeat an ideology of hate is with an ideology of hope," he said.
But neither closer military ties nor development of nuclear energy is likely to be welcomed by many Australians as Howard falls further behind in polls that now predict a Labour landslide in this year's elections.
A survey of Australians' views on global issues by the Lowy Institute for International Affairs found that support for the US alliance had plummeted to 36 per cent, and that the Bush Administration had created an "unfavourable" opinion of the US among 69 per cent of Australians.
A Morgan poll for the political internet site GetUp further found that two-thirds of Australians believed that Howard's support for Bush on such issues as Iraq and climate change had damaged the nation's reputation.
Since winning power in 1996 Howard has moved Australia steadily closer to the US, enhanced by a friendship with Bush that the President praised yesterday.
"I admire your vision, I admire your courage," Bush told Howard. "The thing I appreciate about Prime Minister Howard is that you know where he stands - you don't have to read nuance into his words."
Apart from Iraq and Afghanistan, Howard has massively increased Australia's military capabilities. Labor supports the US alliance, but will withdraw Australian troops from Iraq if it wins power - a position Bush hopes to change when he meets leader Kevin Rudd today.
Despite polls showing wider concern at the depth of Australian involvement in US security, Howard told Bush: "An American president is always welcome in our country."
The two leaders said they had signed a new US-Australia defence trade co-operation treaty that would strip away bureaucracy. It would also give Australian companies the same access to advanced American military technology at present extended only to Britain. The treaty will ease Australian resentment at exclusion from state-of-the art technology under US arms exports controls that would otherwise have included key components of the new Joint Strike Fighters planned for the RAAF.
The new agreement includes: greater cooperation in humanitarian aid and relief, possibly requiring the pre-positioning of American equipment and stores in Australia to respond to regional disasters; further expansion of joint training in Australia; expanded cooperation in the development and sharing of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance; and expanded military exchanges and joint operations.
