Senior officials of the opposition Labor Party conceded that Howard's Liberal-National coalition had retained control of the 150-member House of Representatives in Saturday's vote.

Although officials results were still pending, computer projections showed Howard's coalition winning up to 85 seats in the House, which would be a three-seat increase from the outgoing parliament.

"The election is over, gone, finished," said Kim Beazely, Labor's shadow defense minister.

Labor's 43-year-old leader, Mark Latham, had vowed to withdraw the 900 Australian troops stationed in and around Iraq following the US-led invasion of the country by Christmas if he won the election.

But the issue of Iraq was overtaken by domestic concerns during the election campaign and Howard wooed voters by arguing that a Latham government would undermine the nearly nine years of continuous prosperity Australians have enjoyed under his leadership.

The result will be good news for US President George W Bush, who also faces a tough fight for re-election next month against Senator John Kerry, like Latham a strident critic of the US Iraq policy.

But Australia's six-week election campaign largely ignored Iraq to focus on bread-and-butter domestic issues like education, health care and interest rates -- a key worry for millions of homeowners.

Howard, at 65 a vastly experienced and wily politician who has overseen the most robust growth in Australia's economy in a generation, overcame voter weariness with his taciturn style by painting the fiery, younger Latham as a risk to prosperity.

Howard hammered away at voter concerns that Latham, who has never been a government minister, did not have the experience needed to manage the economy and would undermine economic growth and lead to higher interest rates.

"Don't risk your prosperity with a Labor/Green experiment," Howard told voters at one polling station Saturday, referring to the left-leaning Greens who have allied themselves with Labor for the election.

Labor leaders conceded the economy had been their downfall.

"I think you might be able to conclude that the economy (was the deciding issue), that people went into the polling booths and decided it might be a risk under Labor so they gave John Howard another three years," said Wayne Swan, a Labor legislator.

Howard also had the weight of history behind him as Australians have thrown out incumbents only four times in the past 50 years.

Saturday's victory made Howard the second-longest serving prime minister in Australia's history behind Liberal Party founder Robert Menzies, although he is widely expected to retire before finishing a fourth term.

But during the campaign Latham showed that while he may not have Howard's experience, he could also be a wily political tactician.

He set the agenda for much of the campaign with a series of innovative policy initiatives on education, health care, the elderly and the environment and is already being seen as a force to reckon with when voters return to the polls in 2007.

Ultimately, though, the domestic platforms of both major parties were similar, leaving the only real differences centered on foreign policy and the Iraq war.

For Howard, the "cornerstone" of Australia's security lies in the US alliance that has seen the two nations' armies fight side-by-side in World War II, Vietnam, Afghanistan and now Iraq.

Latham's Labor Party places the US alliance as only one of three "pillars" of its foreign policy alongside the United Nations and engagement with Australia's Asian neighbors.

Voters were also choosing 40 members of the 76-seat upper house Senate, but those results were expected to take longer to emerge.

Most opinion polls indicate the chamber will remain in the hands of Labor, minor parties and independents.

The Greens in particular looked set to build on the two Senate seats they already held as concerns over global warming in the world's most arid continent raised the profile of environmental issues.

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