Australian Pm to Stand for Fifth Term

Australian prime minister John Howard is to fight a fifth election next year, ending months of speculation that he would face a leadership challenge from his treasurer Peter Costello.

Mr Howard wrote to MPs from his Liberal party today saying that, having "taken a variety of soundings within the parliamentary party", he had decided to stand again.

"My position has been that I would remain leader of the Liberal party for so long as that was the party's wish, and that it was in the party's best interests that I did so," he wrote.

The announcement is the latest blow for Mr Costello in a leadership tussle that has been going on for several years, breaking out into open verbal disputes earlier this month.

In 2000, at one of his lowest political ebbs since he won his first election in 1996, Mr Howard suggested that he would consider his retirement when he reached his 64th birthday.

But when he turned 64 three years later there was no word of retirement, and despite feverish speculation that he would step down after his victory in the 2004 federal elections, he has remained in power.

There was open conflict earlier this month when Mr Costello and former defence minister Ian McLachlan claimed that a deal had been struck with Mr Howard in December 1994, just six months after the Granita meeting that stands behind the similar leadership feud between Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.

Mr Costello said that two years before his first election victory in 1996 Mr Howard had promised to hand over to him before fighting a third election. "I did not seek that undertaking. He volunteered it and I took him at his word. Obviously that did not happen," he said.

Mr Howard has denied the claims, saying that the meeting was one of many discussions and "did not involve a conclusion of a deal".

Mr Costello is widely felt to be out of favour with Mr Howard as a leadership successor. His dry style and liberal social policies are a sharp contrast to Mr Howard and his right-wing allies within the Australian government.

In his letter today, Mr Howard tried to head off any disunity within the party by putting Mr Costello on his ticket for next year's election.

"A crucial element will be Peter Costello's contribution, not only as deputy leader but also as treasurer, where his work over the past decade has been so important to our success," he wrote.

Mr Howard has had Australia's second-longest term as prime minister, passing the milestone of 10 years in office earlier this year. He is unlikely to match the record of his political hero Robert Menzies, who ruled the country for 18 years in two terms spanning the 1930s and 1960s.