¡¡¡¡CANBERRA, Aug. 11 (Xinhuanet) -- The Australian opposition Sunday took a tougher stance against any involvement in a war against Iraq.

¡¡¡¡"I would totally oppose, at this stage, this open-ended support which the government has given," former Prime Minister Bob Hawke told the local television Nine Network.

¡¡¡¡"You should pursue every diplomatic effort you can to get the inspectors back there and establish the facts, and secondly see ifthere is any evidence establishing a link with al-Qaeda," the former Labor prime minister said and added, "Until you've done both those things, there is no justification for spilling one dropof Australian blood or committing, at this stage, one Australian soldier to that cause."

¡¡¡¡He criticized the Howard government for jumping ahead of the United States in advocating a war against Iraq. "We should not be jumping ahead of the US the way we are. It's wrong, it's against our interests and it's not, I believe, in the interests of the community internationally or of the US itself," he said. Enditem