Australia's former foreign minister Alexander Downer, one of the most visible supporters of US President George W. Bush's war in Iraq, announced his retirement from politics on Thursday.

Downer, the international face of Australian diplomacy for a record period of nearly 12 years, served in Prime Minister John Howard's conservative government until it was ousted by the centre-left Labour Party last November.

The 56-year-old told reporters he would quit on 14 July after 24 years as Liberal Party member of parliament for Mayo in the South Australian capital of Adelaide because "it is time to move on".

Downer said he had held talks with the United Nations about becoming the UN's special envoy for Cyprus, but that the role had not yet been confirmed.

The UN had approached him over the position and he would be delighted to take it up but the secretary-general was yet to make a decision, he said.

Downer said he would also join an Adelaide consultancy firm and take up a part time position at Adelaide University's School of History.

Downer has no regrets

The former foreign minister, hailed in The Australian newspaper this week as a "Warrior Statesman" — but seen by some critics at home and in Asia as pompous and arrogant, said he had no regrets about his political career.

"I don't really have regrets. I just feel that I did my best, I worked incredibly hard and I argued for the things I believed in," he said.

Downer, like Howard, was a staunch supporter of Bush and the "coalition of the willing" which invaded Iraq in March 2003.

Australian commandos were among the first coalition troops to cross into Iraq, but as the war dragged on the role of the main Australian force was limited and no soldiers were killed in combat.

Downer still defends the decision to enter the war, while new Prime Minister Kevin Rudd last month withdrew the nation's 550-strong combat force from its base at Tallil south of Baghdad.

During more than a decade as foreign minister, Downer juggled Australia's traditional loyalties to Britain and the US with its modern desire for engagement with the growing economies of its Asian neighbours.

It was not always easy, with former Malaysian leader Mahathir Mohamad in particular scorning Australia's aspirations to join regional groupings, calling the nation a foreign implant and the "deputy sheriff" of the US in Asia.

Downer also faced outrage over Howard's doctrine allowing for pre-emptive strikes against terror threats from neighbouring countries in the wake of the 2002 Bali bombings in Indonesia which killed 88 Australian tourists.

In mid-2005, desperate to attend the inaugural East Asia summit in Kuala Lumpur, Australia bowed to demands and signed a non-aggression treaty with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

Downer's "greatest achievement"

Announcing his resignation, Downer said helping East Timor win independence was the "greatest achievement" in his political life.

"I helped to free the people of East Timor and I would single that out as my greatest achievement. But there were a lot of things that I did that I'm proud of," he said.

Australia headed a peacekeeping force that played a key role in the former Portuguese colony's independence from Indonesia in 2002.

In his home country, however, he might be remembered most for the time he donned fishnet stockings and high heels for charity — a gaffe which cartoonists never let the portly foreign minister forget.

Downer denied that he was tired of politics but said it was time for generational change in the Liberal Party, which was handed a drubbing by the electorate last November.

"It is time for me to move on. I don't feel I'm so old but it's a very long time to be in one position," he said. "I think the Liberal Party inevitably, like all political movements, needs renewal."

AFP