Australians vote in national elections tomorrow with polls showing conservative Prime Minister John Howard facing defeat after a series of campaign blunders, including a new row over anti-Muslim leaflets.

Opposition Labor party leader Kevin Rudd, 50, has built a strong lead in the polls with his campaign for a new generation of leadership, promising to sign the Kyoto Pro­tocol on climate change and pull Australian frontline troops out of Iraq.

A Rudd victory will end 11 years of conservative rule and would further isolate Howard?s friend and close ally, USPresident George W. Bush, on climate change and the ongoing conflict in Iraq.

Whatever happens tomorrow, this election will be Howard?s last. If he wins a fifth straight term, Howard, 68, has promised to retire and hand power to his deputy, Treasurer Peter Costello, in about two years.

Making his last major campaign speech yesterday, Ho­ward said he had not felt any voter anger towards the government and was confident he would be re-elected, saying his government had strengthened Australia since he first won office in 1996. ?I don?t find as I go around the country that people want a change in the fundamental direction of Austra­lia. I?ve been in a lot of election campaigns. This is not an angry election campaign,? Howard told the National Press Club.

Labor needs to win 16 more seats to win office and both Rudd and Howard say the election will be tight, although polls show Labor leads by between 8 and 10 points and enough to deliver Rudd a solid victory if carried through to election day.

Howard has campaigned on his economic management, continued economic growth and record low unemployment, and waged a negative campaign warning a future Labor government would be dominated by former trade unionists and would wreck the economy.

Yesterday, Howard?s campaign was entangled in a new row after fake leaflets, which linked Labor to Muslim extremists, were distributed in a key eastern Sydney seat. ?I condemn it completely. It wasn?t authorised by the Liberal Party, by me. It?s not part of my campaign,? Howard said.

But the leaflets may damage his re-election hopes in key seats, including his own, where migrant voters fear the government harbours xenophobic beliefs which underpin its tough anti-boatpeople stance. Australia?s border security policy see boatpeople detained in centres in the Indian and Pacific oceans.