[JURIST] Australian Prime Minister John Howard has announced that Australian troops will join a US-led war against Iraq. Read a transcript of his news conference Tuesday morning in Canberra, as published in the Sydney Morning Herald. On the legality of military action, Prime Minister Howard said:

The action that might be taken as a result of this decision has a sound legal basis in the resolutions of the Security Council that have already been passed. If you go back to resolution 678, 687 and 1441, you find ample legal authority. That is not only the legal advice that has been tendered to us but it is also almost identically the published view of the Attorney-General of the United Kingdom Government. It also corresponds with legal advice that has been tendered to the United States Government. It is my intention to table in the Parliament this afternoon the text of the legal advice that has been provided to the Australian Government.