Mind your business, Keating tells US:

In response to unprecedented US criticism of Australia's opposition Labour party from G. W. Bush, Cheney, Powell, Richard Armitage and others, former Australian PM Paul Keating has warned US politicians to mind their own business.

"'Beating up on friendly foreign political parties is not only unsightly, it is also dumb and counter productive in the longer term,' Mr Keating said. 'There is no division in the Labor Party about the value or maintenance of the US alliance nor about policy on Iraq. But the party will not be thugged by US officials. In my own experience of presidents Bush (senior) and Clinton, no behaviour of this kind towards what the US might regard as a client state, was ever contemplated or attempted.'

Mr Keating questioned Mr Armitage's and Secretary of State Colin Powell's support for the Iraq war.

'A modicum of self regard might have taken Richard Armitage and his secretary, Colin Powell, out of this administration over its policy in Iraq,' he said. 'I can understand both men seeing it as their duty to stay on to fight the fight within the administration for America's sake. But I should have thought a little humility might have been appropriate or at least some contrition.'"