Latham tries to mend fences with U.S.

Latham tries to mend fences with U.S.

AUSTRALIA: Australia's outspoken new opposition leader, Mark Latham, met on Thursday with the U.S. ambassador in a bid to mend fences after branding President George W. Bush "incompetent and dangerous".

Latham said he told Ambassador Tom Schieffer that Australia's alliance with the United States was vital to the nation's security but did not mean an automatic "rubber stamp" of approval for all U.S. policies.

"For Labor, our alliance with the U.S. has never meant compliance," he said.

"From time to time our interests will differ, as they did in Iraq."

The Labor Party strongly opposed the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and the decision by conservative Australian Prime Minister John Howard to join the war.

At the height of debate over the conflict, Latham said Bush was "the most incompetent and dangerous U.S. president in living memory". -- AFP