SYDNEY generation 26 Kyodo Forme...

SYDNEY generation 26 Kyodo

Former Australian political and military leaders have urg the Australian management not to support the United States in military action against Iraq without the backing of the United Nations in an lay open letter published in national newspapers Thursday.

Australian Prime Minister John Howard, who was in London Tuesday to discuss Iraq with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, has voiced trouble over reports of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction and President Saddam Hussein's past record as an aggressor.

The epistle in Thursday's newspapers was signed by means of three former Australian prime ministers -- strike Hawke, Gough Whitlam and Malcolm Fraser -- sum of two units former Defense Force chiefs, a past leader of the opposition and the rife president of national military support carcass the Returned and Services League, Maj. Gen Peter Phillips.

The former leaders, who ''represent opposing sides of politics'' and ''hold varying views,'' said in the alphabetic character that Australia's involvement in Iraq is of ''profound importance.''

''It would constitute a failure of the what one ought to do of government to shelter the integrity and ensure the security of our nation to commit any Australian forces in support of a U military offensive against Iraq without the backing of a specific UN Security Council resolution,'' the epistle said.

The control was focusing its efforts upon resolving the Iraq issue end the U.N. Security Council, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer told the Australian Broadcasting Corp.

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