A letter from the Singapore government was delivered Thursday to the Melbourne home of the mother of Nguyen Tuong Van, informing her that he would be hanged on December 2.

At the same time, Howard, who has lobbied hard for Singapore to spare Nguyen's life, was meeting Lee at the APEC summit in South Korea, yet Lee did not tell him that a date had been fixed.

"I'm very disappointed I was not told, very disappointed," Howard said to reporters afterwards.

Nguyen's lawyer also expressed outrage that Singapore sent the letter via the Australian postal service rather than first informing Australian authorities so the news could be broken gently to Ngyuen's mother.

A statement issued by Lee's office here said he had "apologised".

"This was because the letter informing the family of the execution date was mistakenly delivered a day early," it said. "The letter to the family was meant to be delivered on 18 November."

The plan was for Lee to inform Howard once the family had been told, which should have been Friday.

"We are investigating how this came about," said the statement.

The letter was sent by Singapore's High Commission in Canberra.

"Prime Minister Lee has read Prime Minister Howard's comments and has apologised for the embarrassment," said the statement.

Nguyen, 25, was sentenced to hang for smuggling 400 grams (14 ounces) of heroin into Singapore in 2002. He told police he was smuggling the drugs to Australia to help pay off a debt owed by his twin brother.

Australia, where capital punishment is outlawed, has lobbied for months that he be spared the death penalty but Singapore's President Sellapan Ramanathan Nathan has refused clemency.

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