Australia's veteran Prime Minister John Howard on Sunday called a national election for November 24, stressing experience over his Labour opponent and shrugging off polls that show he faces near-certain defeat.

Howard, 68, in power for 11 years but lagging well behind youthful Labor leader Kevin Rudd in opinion surveys, said that only he was able to lead Australia into the future and continue the country's current resource-driven economic boom.

"Love me or loath me the Australian people know where I stand on all the major issues of importance to their future," said Howard, who is danger of losing in his own Sydney-based seat.

Howard, Australia's second-longest serving leader, said the country was enjoying remarkable prosperity, but promised voters the best years could lie ahead.

"But that won't happen automatically. This country does not need new leadership, it does not need old leadership, it needs the right leadership," he said, unveiling what will likely become the conservatives' fighting slogan.

The election will determine the future of Canberra's military contribution in Iraq and climate change stance, with Labor promising to bring home combat troops and sign the Kyoto climate pact. But the poll will be fought and won on home issues.

Rudd, 50, has promised generational change to take the country into the future, including sweeping reforms to health, education and controversial labour laws introduced by Howard.

Those laws, cutting benefits and making it easier to hire and fire workers, are a major reason first-time voters and those aged under 29 are set to dump Howard, with three-quarters backing Labor, a Taverner/Sun Herald newspaper survey said on Sunday.

Labor has 59 percent of the overall vote, compared with the coalition government's 41 per cent, said the newspaper poll.

But Labor needs to pick up an imposing 16 seats in the 150-seat lower house to take power.

"To win this election we have to make history. We have only won twice from opposition since World War Two," Rudd said on Sunday.

"I believe this is going to be the fight of our lives," he said, standing before a banner reading for "New Leadership".

"The greatest risk for Australia's future is for the coalition to return and nothing changes, nothing changes on climate change and water, nothing changes for our hospitals, nothing changes for our schools."    

Howard stressed his economic stewardship and tough security credentials in his quest for a fifth term. Unemployment last week hit 33-year lows amid the ongoing global resources boom, fattening Australia's mining sector.

But Howard's bedrock support in outer suburban mortgage belts has been shaken since the last election three years ago by successive interest rate rises to 6.5 percent under a tightening cycle that began back in 2002.

Howard acknowledged that his support for the war in Iraq, to which Australia has around 1,500 troops committed, may also cost him support during the election, with as many as 80 percent of people opposed to involvement, according to surveys.

"I do not believe it is in Australia's interest to pull out of Iraq prematurely," he said, warning it would be "perceived as a Western defeat".

Rudd reiterated his plan for withdrawal, while holding intact Australia's close alliance with the United States.

Howard has promised a national vote on recognition for Aborigines in the country's constitution if he wins, a move dismissed by opponents as a last ditch effort to present a "vision" to lure back jaded former conservative supporters.

But political analyst Nick Economou said Howard's biggest error may have been his championing of unpopular labour laws.

"The government has blundered its way into a policy that affects everyone, regardless of their social-economic standing," Economou told Reuters. "It has made peopl