Australian foreign minister resigns over leadership rift

Canberra, Australia Australia's foreign minister resigned yesterday in a bitter rift with Prime Minister Julia Gillard, who may poll party lawmakers next week on who should lead the country.

Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd announced his resignation during a news conference in Washington, where he was visiting on official business, saying speculation that he planned to seize power from Gillard had become a distraction.

"I can only serve as foreign minister if I have the confidence of Prime Minister Gillard and her senior ministers," Rudd said.

Gillard removed Rudd as prime minister in June 2010 in an internal coup, and their centre-left Labor Party scraped through elections later that year to lead a minority government. Polls now suggest Labor would suffer a devastating defeat, but Gillard maintains she has her colleagues' support.

Gillard was to hold a news conference today to "make a further statement" on Rudd's resignation. Media reports and current and former Labor lawmakers said she will announce a leadership ballot of party lawmakers on Monday.

A Rudd supporter, Senator Doug Cameron, said a Monday poll would be unfair because Rudd would not have time to canvass support.

‘Not justified'

"It's clear that some senior ministers are intent on putting a stake through Kevin Rudd's heart and I don't think that's justified," Cameron told Australian Broadcasting Corporation television.

Rudd left open the option of quitting politics, which would trigger a by-election and could cost Labor its single-seat majority in Parliament. That would give the conservative opposition coalition the chance to form a new government if it can win the support of independent legislators, or it could force early elections.

In apparent anticipation of a Rudd bid for the party's leadership, Gillard deputy Wayne Swan issued scathing criticism of the former prime minister.

"For too long, Kevin Rudd has been putting his own self-interest ahead of the interests of the broader Labor movement and the country as a whole, and that needs to stop," he said in a statement.