Nov. 28 (Bloomberg) -- Australian Prime Minister John Howard said he failed in his final appeal for clemency for drug smuggler Nguyen Tuong Van, an Australian due to be executed on Dec. 2 in Singapore.

Howard, 66, made his fifth appeal when he met his Singapore counterpart Lee Hsien Loong yesterday during the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Malta. Howard said Singapore would not accept the jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice and thinks the death penalty is ``appropriate.''

``The Singapore government, I'm sad to say, is not going to change its mind and all appeals have been rejected,'' Howard told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio. ``It strongly holds to the view, a view I don't share, that the death penalty is appropriate.''

Howard, who is ``intensely opposed'' to the death penalty, has lobbied Singapore to spare the 25-year-old, who was caught with 396 grams of heroin at Singapore's Changi Airport in 2002. Australia abolished the death penalty in 1973.

Opposition Labor Party foreign affairs spokesman Kevin Rudd appealed for the government to take Nguyen's case to the International Court of Justice.

``We can argue about the imposition of a mandatory death penalty in Singapore,'' Rudd said in an interview in Canberra. ``A question to the government of Singapore and the parliament of Singapore is how could this still be the case in the 21st century.''

Silent Tribute

Attorney-General Philip Ruddock said Australia may observe a minute's silence for Nguyen.

``It's (the death penalty) certainly something that I have opposed over all of my time in public life and to see it carried out is something that impacts upon me and obviously will impact upon many Australians,'' Ruddock told the ABC. ``We will consider having a minute's silence.''

Howard, 66, rejected calls to cancel or not to attend a Prime Minister's XI cricket match in Canberra on Dec. 2. The Australian team, which Howard chooses, is due to play a West Indies team.

``I think the Australian people will understand that I didn't set the date for his execution, I wish there was no date for his execution,'' Howard told the ABC. ``The idea of not attending the game or of abandoning it, I don't think it's something that the majority of Australian people would necessarily believe I should do.''

Singapore is Australia's eighth-largest trading partner, with exports to the island totaling A$5.6 billion ($4.1 billion) in the year ended June 30. Singapore exports to Australia were worth A$9.9 billion.

To contact the reporter on this story: Gemma Daley in Canberra at gdaley@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: November 27, 2005 23:50 EST