The White House has ruled out any consideration of a US withdrawal from Afghanistan as part of President Barack Obama's sweeping strategy review of the increasingly unpopular war there.

"We are not leaving Afghanistan. This discussion is about next steps forward and the President has some momentous decisions to make," defence secretary Robert Gates said in a television program taped at George Washington University.

Mr Gates said the Afghan and Pakistani governments should not be "nervous" about the US review as Mr Obama prepared to brief congressional leaders and to convene his war council again this week on how to deal with the deteriorating security situation.

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see toon above... With the glorious spirit of GWBush and JWHoward floating in the atmosphere, how can we loose?

Meanwhile:

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The latest poll in the Australian newspaper shows a drop in support for the Liberal party from 33 per cent to 31 per cent, while Labor's support has risen three points to a three-month high at 46 per cent.

Steven Ciobo told ABC1's Lateline the public nature of the party's disputes has hurt it.

"We've been scrappy. I'm not going to sit here and say that we haven't been scrappy," he said.

"The general public is making the message heard loud and clear that they would like us to focus on the Government's inadequacies and not on each other.

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The inadequacies presently lurking in the Coaltion ranks comes from none of them being able to understand that global warming is a serious concern... Not only serious but a real fast accelerating dangerous trend... see toon at top...

Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull's leadership is under renewed pressure this morning after his treasury spokesman Joe Hockey revealed he had been approached about taking the party's top job.

Mr Hockey's admission that he's been "sounded out" about taking the top job has set the hares running, and ushered in an extraordinary scenario for the Liberals - a leadership challenge without a challenger.

Mr Hockey's supporters have told AM that he's not actively challenging Mr Turnbull's leadership, but if the position became available, Mr Hockey would put up his hand.

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Not yet... See toon at top...

Mr Hockey, dutifully, made the pledge: "Malcolm has my absolute, unqualified support. He always has had that. He continues to have that. He will have that into the future. And I just say to people, the job I want is Wayne Swan's job".

And all that is absolutely true. Mr Hockey has never actively sought the leadership, having made the quite astute decision some time ago that now is not a good time to be leader of the Opposition.

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About half a year ago, the media in the UK was spruiking the imminent demise of Gordon Brown to a point when one of the papers firmly predicted the day was going to be the following day of publication. Gordon Brown is still there, moving dung uphill and doing it brilliantly considering the buckets of muck he was dunked in and those thrown at him. So Malcolm, don't worry about "unity" of the Liberal party and of the Nationals lost causes, it won't happen. Just assemple a few loyal troops to vote with the government on the ETS as they are, state your displeasure in Hansard and challenge the Greens to come on board. Once the vote is passed, then go back to your party and fist fight your heart content with the idiots who have no clue about global warming... This will be likely to give you 5 more points in the polls. see toon at top.