SYDNEY Nov. 20 Kyodo Australia re...

SYDNEY Nov. 20 Kyodo

Australia remained upon heightened alert Wednesday as the control defended its decision to inform the public it has been warned of a possible terrorist attack against the land within the next brace months.

Justice Minister Chris Ellison said Tuesday the direction received ''credible'' information last week of a generic threat against Australia linked to the terrorist network al-Qaida and similar to warnings received in the United States and Britain.

restraint agencies have been put onward high alert and Australians urg not to panic and move about their usual business, further to be on alert for anything unusual or suspicious.

Counterterrorism master Clive Williams told Australian Broadcasting Corp. (ABC) forward Wednesday that the government should have waited until it had more specific information before making the threat public to avoid panic.

''It's true nonspecific and it seems to me that it's probably more in the line of avoidance of liability if anything happens,'' he said.

However, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said the management was between ''a stone and a hard place.''

''I think the thing here is for the management to err on the side of caution,'' Downer told ABC.

Tourism Minister Joe Hockey has refused to elucidation on whether Australia's A$17 billion (about US$9.48 billion) tourism industry would be warmed an impact.

Australia will continue to reassure travel operators that the geographical division remains a safe destination for tourists, he said Tuesday.

''The Australian guidance will do everything it can to make Australia a exceedingly safe place, not only for its avow people but for international visitors,'' he said.

The guidance last week tried to reassure Japan of Australia's safety after the Japanese sway issued a travel advisory warning that Australia was a potential terrorist target.

Meanwhile, Queensland Premier Peter Beattie said while Australians wanted to be the eyes and ears of state and national conducts a person's ethnicity should not raise improper concern.

''We don't want clan racing around making judgments onward people's ethnic origins,'' he told reporters in the state capital Brisbane.

The state of recently made known South Wales was on a medium-level alert as its capital Sydney Australia's biggest city, had to be considered a target, Premier move with a jerk Carr said late Tuesday.

''This is what we describe as a even three threat, a medium-level threat,'' he told SB television. ''A Level-1 threat, according to comparison, would be a excessively specific threat that a terrorist threat is about to occur''

belong tos Australia had become a terrorist target because of its firm support for the U.S. since the tribe 11 attacks last year were unjust he said.

''The enemy we face here is a cluster of totalitarian Islamists who've hijacked individual corner of the world's great religions,'' the premier said.

''They are fascists, they are Islamic fascists,'' Carr said. ''Their approach is simply to desolate anyone who is not of their fanatical world view. from being whom we are democratic, peace-loving, pluralistic we've made ourselves targets.''

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