Opposition Leader Mark Latham has urged Americans from the right and the left to butt out of Australian politics.

Responding to the latest comments on Iraq policy from the Bush Administration, Mr Latham said there was "too much overseas commentary and interventions in Australian politics" in the lead-up to an election.

He joined a chorus of condemnation yesterday of United States Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage's claim that Labor was "rent down the middle" over its Iraq policy.

Former prime minister Paul Keating released a statement describing the Bush Administration's attacks as thuggish, dumb and counter-productive.

And New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark, in Sydney yesterday, warned the US that "Australians have to have the debate themselves about who is best to lead them" adding that "other people should stand back".

In Washington for talks with top Administration officials, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer seized on Mr Armitage's comments as proof that Labor said one thing in public and another in private in an "extraordinary display of division and incoherence".

Mr Keating denied there was any division in the party over Iraq policy and said Mr Armitage "has made yet another unwarranted and untimely partisan intervention in the Australian political debate".

The Labor Party would "not be thugged by US officials", and the previous Bush and Clinton administrations would not have attempted or contemplated such behaviour.

"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.

http://theage.com.au/articles/2004/07/08/1089000292184.html