Prime Minister Tony Abbott believes Indonesia should give two Australians on death row more time to pursue their legal options.
Indonesian officials are expected to detail their plan to execute drug smugglers Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran when they meet with Australian embassy staff in Jakarta later on Monday.
Foreign Minister Julie Bishop won't be making a last-minute mercy dash to Indonesia because she's been advised by diplomats it would be counter-productive.
Mr Abbott, who has written to President Joko Widodo about the case, said he understood there were still legal options available to Chan and Sukumaran.
"The Indonesian government doesn't normally go ahead with executions of this type while there are legal options still available," Mr Abbott told reporters.
"And that's what we're saying to the Indonesian government: given that there are legal options that apparently are still there, let's not do this dreadful, final, irrevocable thing any time soon."
Mr Abbott rejected suggestions Australia could use its $1 billion aid program for Indonesia as a bargaining tool.
"If I was to turn this into a kind of test of machismo it would almost certainly end in tears," Mr Abbott said.
The prime minister declined to comment on reports the judges in the case may have sought bribes.
The pair's Australian lawyer, Peter Morrissey, said they should not be executed until allegations their sentencing judges offered leniency in exchange for money are investigated.
"I'm sure the Indonesian government won't want to be executing anyone while this is hanging in the air," Mr Morrissey told Southern Cross Austereo.
Mr Abbott said he did not want to peddle false hope about the prospects of the death sentence being dropped.
"We are straining every fibre to try to help these people in a very, very difficult position."
The foreign minister said work would continue behind the scenes but the government had not given up hope for the two men who were among nine Australians arrested in 2005 in Bali for heroin trafficking.
"Our message is that a decade on from their crimes these men are remorseful, they have been rehabilitated and this will be a grave injustice," Ms Bishop said.
Meanwhile, Indonesians in Australia have been warned be alert ahead of the executions.
In an email, the Indonesian embassy cautioned people to be careful of what they said in public and posted on social media sites.
Former prime minister Paul Keating called on the Indonesian government to heed appeals for clemency.
The death penalty was "a monstrous act which provides no atonement for a crime," he told AAP on Monday.
"That is not to say I in any way condone drug running just that, in this case, the penalty is out of all proportion to the crime," Mr Keating said.
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