Australian Prime Minister John Howard said Thursday that Donald Rumsfeld's resignation as U.S. defense secretary will not affect the Iraq war.

Rumsfeld's resignation came after the U.S. Democrats won control of the House of Representatives and are on the brink of capturing the Senate as voters punished President George W Bush's Republicans over the Iraq war.

Howard said he understood the reasons for Rumsfeld's departure.

"As a result of the vote in the congressional election, it was obvious that the president decided that (as) a gesture acknowledging the unease that some people feel about the way the operation is going in Iraq that he had to do that, and I would see Rumsfeld's departure very much in that context," Howard told reporters.

"I think we have to take a little bit of a reality check. Clearly the president has reacted to the vote - obviously he has, and that is sensible - but his reaction does not amount to a fundamental change in direction," he said.

Howard said he would discuss the issue with Bush next week at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Vietnam's capital of Hanoi.

Meanwhile, Australian Opposition Leader Kim Beazley said the results of the U.S. mid-term elections prove voters are angry about the Iraq war.

"The message is that the American people want George Bush to change course in Iraq," Beazley told Australian Broadcasting Corporation Radio Thursday.

Australia, a staunch supporter of the U.S.-led war on terror, currently maintains around 1,400 troops in and around Iraq.

Source: Xinhua