Oz P.M. back pro-Aborigine song

PM backs pro-Aborigine song

Australia's Conservative prime minster has created a stir by saying he likes a song calling for land to be given back to the Aborigines by a band whose lead singer looks set is to stand for the country's Labour party.

John Howard told ABC radio that his favourite song by the now disbanded Midnight Oil was Beds are Burning, which talks about how land 'belongs to them, let's give it back'.

And BBC online says earlier this week Peter Garrett, Midnight Oil's front man, was selected to stand for Labour in the safe Sydney seat of Kingsford-Smith.

That selection itself is to be discussed by the Labour's national exexcutive.

Mr Garrett only applied to join the party after he was selected, and is known in the country for having stood for election to the upper house in the 1980s on a Nuclear Disarmament Party ticket, only narrowly losing.

Foreign Minister Alexander Downer has warned that the selection could harm Australia's alliance with the United States.

Midnight Oil also released an anti-American military anthem called US Forces in 1983.

Asked whether he liked that song, Mr Howard would only say: "Pass."