Australians Warned of Specific Terror Threat

The Australian prime minister, John Howard, said today that authorities had received specific intelligence that terrorists are planning an attack on the country.

Speaking at a televised press conference in Canberra, Mr Howard refused to give any details of the threat, saying he did not want to jeopardise counterterrorism operations. It was, however, the most explicit terror warning he has made.

He also introduced a minor amendment to counterterrorism laws in the house of representatives to increase intelligence agencies' powers.

"The reason for this amendment is that the government has received specific intelligence and police information this week which gives cause for serious concern about a potential terrorist threat," Mr Howard told reporters.

"We have seen material. It is a cause of concern. We have been given advice that if this amendment is enacted as soon as possible, the capacity of the authorities to respond will be strengthened," he said.

Mr Howard said the amendment meant that when prosecuting someone for planning terrorism, authorities would not have to identify a specific act.

Similarly, it will also allow a group to be banned based on intelligence that it is preparing a general terrorist act rather outlining details of a specific terror plot.

Intelligence expert Aldo Borgu said the government may be planning to ban radical Islamic group Hizb ut-Tahrir.

"They now want to ban organisations that aren't necessarily terrorist groups but might advocate terrorism," said Mr Borgu, an analyst from the Canberra-based Australian Strategic Policy Institute.

The country's attorney general, Philip Ruddock, said in August that the government was considering outlawing Hizb ut-Tahrir as a counterterrorism precaution but had no legal basis to list it as a terrorist organisation.

After the July 7 bombings in London that killed 52 people, the British government announced plans that could lead to the banning of the group.

Mr Borgu said the Australian government may be overstating the home-grown threat of terrorism, given that it did not increase the official threat level from medium.

"The problem the government is going to have is explaining the inconsistency between the potential terrorist threat but not changing the threat alert level," he said.

The government has kept the threat level constant since it was elevated to medium in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

Mr Howard's warning comes as the government was in the process of pushing tough new anti-terror laws through parliament before Christmas and meeting resistance from some state leaders.

It also followed a warning yesterday about the threat of home-grown terrorists contained in the top Australian intelligence agency's annual general report to parliament.

There has never been a major terror attack on Australian soil but the country's citizens and diplomatic outposts have been repeatedly targeted by bombers in recent years - dozens of Australians were killed in the attacks on Bali in 2002 and last month, and a suicide van bomber attacked the Australian embassy in Jakarta in 2004.