Kim Nguyen, mother of convicted Australian drug trafficker Nguyen Tuong Van, waits in a vehicle after arriving at Singapore's Changi airport November 21, 2005. (Reuters photo)

    BEIJING, Nov. 23 -- There is little the Australian government can do to help convicted drug trafficker Nguyen Tuong Van to be executed in Singapore next week and it would be wrong to give Nguyen's family any false hope, Prime Minister John Howard has warned.

    Nguyen, 25, was arrested in late December 2002 when he was in transit at Changi Airport, carrying almost 400g of heroin.

    After being convicted, losing his appeal and having all pleas for clemency rejected, Nguyen was now due to be executed at dawn on Friday, December 2.

    "She is a dear woman who is understandably feeling completely desolate and distressed and I wished I could have found it within my executive power to have done something, but it is a matter for the government of Singapore," Howard told reporters during a visit to Pakistan late on Tuesday.

    Nguyen's mother, who met privately with Howard last week, and his twin brother visited him in Singapore on Tuesday. Australia has said Nguyen was carrying the drugs to help his brother pay off debts to loan sharks.

    Howard has dismissed calls for trade sanctions to be imposed on Singapore over the case.  Enditem

(Agencies)