Prime Minister Kevin Rudd says he stands by his claim that Opposition Leader Tony Abbott is risking a diplomatic incident over asylum seekers.
"I stand by everything I said," Mr Rudd told reporters while campaigning in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney.
"Including the fact that my responsibility as Prime Minister is to ensure that we have a first class relationship with 250 million people in Indonesia, a country which constitutes our most important neighbour."
Yesterday, Mr Rudd attacked Opposition leader Tony Abbott's promise to turn back asylum seeker boats if the Coalition wins government, saying it could lead to conflict with Indonesia.
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Mr Rudd said he meant a diplomatic rather than a military conflict, but added that he's "always wary about where diplomatic conflicts go".
He challenged Mr Abbott this morning to respond to questions about what the Coalition will do if a boat sinks.
"He's got a very basic question to ask about this policy. Number one, what happens when a boat sinks. And number two, what happens if Indonesia pushes the boats back in our direction because their policy is that they will not take boats back (to the country of origin).
"...He hasn't answered eiither of those things. So either it's a fair dinkum policy or it's simply codswallop to try and win some votes."
But former Prime Minister John Howard said Mr Rudd's comments are "disgraceful".
"What the current Prime Minister has done to that relationship (with Indonesia) over the last two days is absolutely disgraceful," Mr Howard said at the Liberal Party's federal campaign rally in Victoria today.
"He knows what he has said.
"The dead give away was the word Konfrontasi. We know that is a Dutch derived word to describe the conflict in the 1960s that pitted - at one point - Australia against Indonesia.
"And he cannot start to walk away. He can't get his mates getting on the media to saying 'oh no he was really talking about diplomatic confrontation'."
Indonesia's foreign affairs spokesman Teuku Faizasyah has told the ABC it isn't appropriate to comment on Mr Rudd's remarks because they relate to internal Australian political matters.
Mr Rudd is expected to hold talks with Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in Jakarta next week, his first overseas trip since reclaiming the prime ministership.
