SYDNEY (AFP) - Prime Minister John Howard looks set to hold the most powerful mandate of any Australian leader in a generation after weekend elections handed him effective control of both houses of parliament and free rein to impose his conservative agenda.
Internationally the most important immediate consequence of the vote was that Australia will keep its troops in Iraq -- a presence that defeated opposition leader Mark Latham had vowed to end if he had won the election.
US President George W. Bush, who faces a tough reelection himself next month, was quick to hail Howard's victory -- his fourth consecutive poll win.
"Australia is a great ally in the war on terror, and John Howard is the right man to lead that country," Bush said.
Official results Sunday gave Howard's Liberal-National coalition at least 83 and up to 85 seats in the 150-member lower House of Representatives, where the largest faction forms government. The coalition held 82 seats previously.
Latham, 43, saw his Labor Party's support shrink across the nation and its presence in the House drop from 64 to a probable 60 seats.
In the 76-member upper house Senate, where the vote count is slower, Howard's camp was tipped to win at least 38 seats and was well placed to capture a 39th for outright control of the chamber, Anthony Green, the main election analyst for national broadcaster ABC, told AFP Sunday.
It would be the first time since 1981 that a government has controlled both houses of Australia's parliament.
But even with just 38 seats, Howard can count on the support of a new Christian-based party, Family First, which was set to win its first Senate seat and has allied with the conservatives.
The previous Senate was controlled by Labor, its allies and a handful of independents.
They notably blocked liberalisation of media ownership laws which had prevented conservative forces like Rupert Murdoch's News Corp from expanding their already extensive control on the country's newspapers and broadcasters.
With his expanded power, Howard is expected to push through the media law as well as a controversial industrial relations bill designed to lessen the influence of trade unions.
He will also seek to sell the state's remaining 50.1 percent share of telecommunications giant Telstra -- an asset worth at least 30 billion Australian dollars (22 billion US dollars).
Senior Labor lawmaker Bob McMullan described the Senate result as alarming.
"It's very significant ... we'll see some very big and radical changes," he said.
Labor officials said Latham would continue leading the party he took over only 10 months ago.
"I think he's established himself as a person capable of leading the nation and I think in the future he will," said McMullan.
The conservative victory was attributed primarily to Howard's successful handling of the economy through nearly a decade of continuous growth and prosperity.
Howard played on his rival's relative lack of experience with an aggressive campaign of negative advertisements claiming a free-spending, union-friendly Latham government would lead to skyrocketing interest rates.
Most of the seats picked up by the coalition were in so-called mortgage-belt electorates around the big east coast cities of Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.
The issue of Iraq, and Howard's hugely unpopular decision to join the US-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein last year, barely registered as a factor in the election.