By Kristin Roberts
CANBERRA (Reuters) - Australia and the United Statesreaffirmed their strong alliance on Saturday, saying theirsecurity and defence partnership would not change with theelection of Canberra's new government and plans for a partialwithdrawal from Iraq.
The foreign and defence ministers of both countries soughtto play down differences over Iraq, while on Afghanistan bothsides struck the same chord, calling on Europe to dedicate moreresources to the fight.
Australia also appeared ready to act as a bridge betweenBeijing and Washington, as Canberra's foreign minister urgedboth sides to have a more open dialogue and called on China formore transparency in its activities.
"The alliance between Australia and the United States isfundamental to Australia's defence, security and strategicarrangements," Foreign Minister Stephen Smith told reportersafter the annual Australia-United States ministerialconsultations.
"The alliance relationship transcends a Labour or Liberalgovernment here, or a Democrat or Republican administration inthe United States," he said.
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Deputy Secretary ofState John Negroponte are the highest ranking Bushadministration officials to visit since Prime Minister KevinRudd's centre-left Labour Party won power. U.S. officials hadlooked for Australia to renew its commitment to their allianceduring Saturday's session.
They also sought to press Australia for an assessment ofChina's growing strategic and economic role in the region. Someofficials have said they hoped Rudd, a former diplomat withChina expertise, would act as a bridge between China and theWest.
But other officials and some security experts questionedwhat impact China's growing economic links to Australia mighthave on Canberra's commitment to partnership with Washington.China is on the verge of replacing Japan as Australia's toptrading partner, due to China's demand for Australia's mineralresources.
Smith, however, said the United States and Japan remainedAustralia's key strategic allies.
"We can have a very good economic relationship with Chinawhich doesn't impact on the United States," he said.
COMBAT ROLES
The Rudd government has already broken with the Bushadministration on Iraq, promising to pull 550 of its 1,500troops out. The remaining force will begin to transition tonon-combat roles to help build Iraqi capabilities, Smith said.
He said Australia would also look to increase itsnon-military support to Afghanistan to help build schools androads and improve Afghanistan's police and judiciary.
But Australia had no plans to increase its force of about1,000 troops in Afghanistan, including engineers and specialforces commandos who are fighting in one of the more restiveareas of that war zone.
"We are currently giving consideration to the capacitybuilding and development assistance in relation to Iraq andAfghanistan," he said.
The ministers also discussed missile defence and thepossibility of joint defence system with the United States,something considered by the previous John Howard government.Defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon would not offer details ofthose discussions.
But he said Australia had noted America's successfulshoot-down of a defunct U.S. spy satellite last week, a missionseen by the Pentagon as proving the capability of its limitedmissile defence system.
"I can say to our American friends and in particular toSecretary Gates that we watched their activity in terms ofbringing down the satellite with great interest," Fitzgibbonsaid.
"Bob, nice shot," he told to Gates.
(Additional reporting by James Grubel; Editing by AlexRichardson)
