(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-02-24 16:55

The F-22 is only one of a range of issues raised in annual US-Australian security talks hosted here by the new Labor government.

They discussed Australia's plans to draw down combat troops from Iraq by midyear and a change in approach in Afghanistan from strictly combat operations to police training and civil affairs work.

Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Stephen Smith, speaking on television on Sunday, said among the issues discussed was whether Canberra would join a United States missile defence system.

In opposition, Labor had opposed the system on cost and the available technology but Smith said the technology had changed and the government was now considering joining the system.

"We'll do that very carefully and do that in a deliberative and sober way," he said.

"It's not a matter of being coy... (but) we don't want to make any decisions which would deprive us of technology which might, in the end, be in our national security interests and be able to protect our forces in the field."

Gates departs Monday for Indonesia, and will make stops in India and Turkey next week before returning to Washington.

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