Amnesty secretary-general Irene Khan said the fear generated by leaders such as Mr Howard "thrives on myopic and cowardly leadership". Ms Khan lumped Mr Howard in with Mr Mugabe, US President George W Bush and Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir in a paragraph about leaders who used fear to suit their political agenda.

In statement today, Mr Howard rejected the way Australia was characterised in the Amnesty report. "The report's entry on Australia contains a string of assertions, unsupported by evidence and devoid of context," he said. "The report's treatment of Australia amounts to little more than a shoddy caricature.

"Nowhere is the report's political agenda clearer than the paragraph in its foreword which seeks to bracket Australian and US policies with the horrendous human rights situation in Darfur and Robert Mugabe's disastrous misrule in Zimbabwe." Ms Khan stood by her comments today, accusing the Howard government of having an "appalling" domestic human rights record regarding its treatment of asylum seekers and indigenous people.

These failures had undermined its good work overseas, she told ABC Radio. Mr Howard said he respected Amnesty, but its current leadership had lost sight of the need for balance or rigour. "I believe many Australians will be as offended by this report as I am," he said.

"My government makes no apology for taking appropriate, balanced steps to protect the Australian public from the very real threat of terrorism and to protect our borders." Refugee exchange deal

Ms Khan also said Australia's refugee exchange deal with the US is a panicked response to failed policies of offshore processing. Canberra and Washington have agreed to a deal under which asylum seekers detained on Nauru can be sent to the US once their claims are approved, while US-bound Haitian refugees detained in Guantanamo Bay can be resettled in Australia. Ms Khan said today the agreement was a bid to save face because both governments realised their hardline stance on refugees was a sham.

"This is a desperate measure by two governments to cover up the fact that their offshore processing policy on refugees has basically failed,'' she told ABC radio. "So what they're doing is sending people from Nauru to the US and people from Cuba - the Haitians from Cuba - to Australia so that they do not have to face the shame of having to release these people into their own countries.

"It's a cover-up, it's not a solution and it creates ... huge impact on the individuals themselves.'' Hicks The Howard government had an "appalling'' domestic human rights record over its treatment of asylum seekers and indigenous people which had undermined its good work overseas, she said.

Ms Khan said she was pleased confessed terrorism supporter David Hicks was back in Australia, but he never received a fair trial in Guantanamo Bay. "The Military Commissions Act does not provide for fair trial because it allows evidence obtained under torture, it does not provide for proper legal representation, there is no separation from the administration,'' she said.

"He had an unfair trial, in our view, and he had to wait five years for it.'' Hicks was only returned because his case was becoming an embarrassment for the Australian government, she said. Ms Khan also urged Australian voters to think about giving others a "fair go'' at this year's election.

AAP