CANBERRA, 27 March 2004 — After eight years in power, Australia’s conservative Prime Minister John Howard is facing his toughest fight for survival, as his grip on politics is prised open by an opposition leader 21 years his junior.

Howard, 64, has dominated Australian politics but now opposition Labor’s new leader Mark Latham, 43, with his fresh approach to political battle, is winning the hearts and minds of people, taking the lead in opinion polls.

Ahead of an election expected in October or November, even national security, once a lethal government weapon, is being defused by Latham’s promise to bring troops home from Iraq by Christmas and he is rattling the government. “Latham is a much more dangerous opponent than anyone in the past eight years,” said political analyst Nick Economou from Monash University.

Howard is the country’s third longest-serving prime minister, and has called himself “a Lazarus with a triple bypass” for recovering from near political death time after time. He has always warned winning a fourth sraight term in office will be tough — a feat only once before achieved in Australia — but denies his government is tired or he is running out of ideas. But Labor is now leading the government, with the latest Reuters Poll Trend, which averages Australia’s three political polls, putting Labor at 45.4 percent to the government’s 40.

Howard has plenty of time to reverse his fortunes, as he did before his last poll victory in 2001, when his government was in a worse state than now, at 13 percentage points behind Labor.

The diminutive, half-deaf politician waltzed back into power after sealing the nation’s borders to boat people and beefing up security after the Sept. 11, 2001, US attacks.

The booming economy, fuelled by a red-hot housing market, remains one of his most potent weapons.

But Howard’s decision to staunchly support the US-led war on terror, which has included sending troops to both Afghanistan and Iraq, is increasingly shaping up as a key election issue.

Latham entered the security arena dominated by Howard since 2001 with a bold announcement he would withdraw troops.

Howard has no set timetable for withdrawing 850 Australians left in and around Iraq and is fighting to convince voters Latham is wrong, aware that while security once saved his political life, an error on security could now end it.