Nguyen Tuong Van, 25, has been sentenced to death after being convicted of trafficking heroin into Singapore and losing his appeal to have his death sentence commuted.

Australian politicians from both sides have argued for Nguyen's life to be spared, and members of both sides of politics voted Monday to pass the motion.

"I call upon the Singaporean government to show clemency in this case and return this silly boy to his mother. Yes, punish him for his crime, but not by the death penalty," Labor's Anna Burke said.

Judi Moylan, a member of Prime Minister John Howard's Liberal Party, said it would be a "great tragedy if this young Australian loses his life in this way."

But Liberal Wilson Tuckey refused to support the motion.

"It is not appropriate for the parliament to further pressure the parliament of Singapore on their own laws," he said.

Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said the government had not given up on saving Nguyen's life but nothing would be achieved through publicly slamming the Singaporean government.

Downer acknowledged public concern in Australia about the Nguyen case but rejected calls from some commentators to put the economic and political relationship with Singapore on the line over his fate.

"I think that is extremely unwise," he told reporters. "You would of course succeed in terminating your relationship with Singapore but you wouldn't succeed in saving Nguyen.

"It would be at best a publicity stunt and at worst extremely damaging to the national interest."

Appeals have been made to England's Queen Elizabeth II and the Pope to intercede on behalf of Nguyen, who was attempting to smuggle 400 grams of heroin from Cambodia into Australia when he was stopped while in transit in Singapore in 2002.

He told police he was smuggling the drugs to Australia to help pay off a debt owed by his twin brother.

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