Australia parties hunt green vote

Tasmania's virgin forests have become a key election issue

Tasmania's forests have taken centre-stage in Australia's election, with parties fighting for last-minute votes.

Three days before the election, Prime Minister John Howard promised to preserve Tasmania's forests while keeping loggers in work.

Mr Howard's rival, Labor leader Mark Latham, had angered the timber industry with dramatic plans to reduce logging.

In his final major campaign address, Mr Latham assured voters he was up to the task of running Australia.

Opinion polls this week have shown Mr Howard's conservative coalition slightly ahead of Labor, and Mr Latham is eager to brush off suggestions he is too young and inexperienced.

In a speech to timber workers in the Labor-held seat of Bass in Tasmania, Mr Howard promised that if his Liberal-National coalition was re-elected it would safeguard jobs in the timber industry.

Mr Howard promised to preserve an extra 170,000 hectares (420,000 acres) of forest from logging, but said that no jobs would be lost as a result.

He said it was not fair to ask one group of Australians to suffer in order to achieve a nationwide aim.

"I like trees, I like forests, I believe in an environmentally sensitive nation," he said. "But I do not think that it's fair to throw the jobs of individual Australians... onto the scrap heap."

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On Monday Mr Latham announced more wide-ranging plans to safeguard the ancient virgin forests of Tasmania, sparking condemnation from the timber industry but praise from environmental groups.

Mr Latham said he would set up a commission to review which forests should be permanently protected, and establish an A$820m (US$574m ) fund to create new jobs for loggers.

Both sides in the election campaign clearly view votes from the Greens Party as vitally important.

While the Greens Party is influential in its own right, it is extremely unlikely to be the overall winner.

Australian polls require voters to order their candidates in terms of preference, with votes redistributed until a winner is declared.

In what is looking set to be a extremely close race between Labor and the conservative coalition, the second preferences of Greens supporters could prove decisive.

'Dishonest'

In his speech on Wednesday, Mr Latham addressed critics who said he was too inexperienced for the job of prime minister.

He told the National Press Club in Canberra: "I'm 43 years of age, in the prime of my life and raring to go and I've got to say I've enjoyed this campaign. I love the pressure. I love the opportunity to serve."

He also took the opportunity to accuse Mr Howard of being "fundamentally dishonest", and said he no longer deserved the Australian public's trust.

"Mr Howard talks about economic responsibility, but he has spent the entire campaign walking around marginal seats dropping money out of his pockets. If the election went for another week, he would be offering steak knives," Mr Latham said.

He also attacked Mr Howard's decision to go to war in Iraq.

"It gives us no joy or pleasure that if our views... had been listened to, then they wouldn't have gone to war in Iraq for a purpose that wasn't true," Mr Latham said.

He also repeated his pledge to bring troops home by Christmas if he was successful in Saturday's poll.