Week three of the campaign began with his government on the back foot and the opposition reinforcing its election-winning lead in opinion polls.

No matter what Mr Howard did, his Labor counterpart Kevin Rudd appeared to get the better of him.

When the Prime Minister announced A$34billion (S$46 billion) worth of tax cuts at the beginning of the campaign, the opposition leader matched him.

When the two men held a nationally televised debate, Mr Howard was clearly beaten by Mr Rudd.

When the government launched a scare campaign against Labor's trade union connections, the opposition leader reminded Mr Howard that he had broken an earlier promise to keep interest rates low.

Now it seems that the Reserve Bank of Australia will be forced to raise interest rates even higher next month, a move that could provide the final nail in Mr Howard's coffin.

Even members of his Cabinet are showing signs of frustration with their leader, after it emerged that Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull had tried to persuade him to change his global warming policy and sign the Kyoto Agreement.

But the Prime Minister, who was advised that such a move might enhance his electoral appeal, refused to budge.

Yesterday, The Australian newspaper revealed that senior members of the Liberal Party were worried that Mr Howard's focus on defending his record was hurting the coalition government and creating tension within its election campaign.

As the prospect of a landslide vote against the government begins to cloud coalition minds, the Howard administration is expected this week to highlight its ability to reduce unemployment and focus on the economic risks of electing a Labor government.

But the Prime Minister needs to pull a much bigger rabbit out of his hat if he is to improve his chances at next month's polls.

So far, there is no evidence of him producing such a killer blow.

Yesterday, he unveiled a A$2 billion plan to create 100 more technical colleges over a 10-year period. While welcome news, this was hardly an election-winner.

Meanwhile, Mr Rudd announced a multimillion-dollar scheme to protect the Great Barrier Reef.

Again, it was unlikely to influence electoral thinking either way, and that is the point: The Labor leader is so far ahead in the opinion polls that he can just sit back and let Mr Howard slowly roast.

This is not to suggest that the Howard government cannot recover, even at this late stage.

Mr Howard has done it before, once likening his chances of political survival to 'Lazarus with a triple bypass'. This time it might require a quadruple bypass, but Mr Howard is not a man to go down without a fight.

rogmaynard@compuserve.com