In the letter dated November 15, Singapore speaker Abdullah Tarmugi says 25-year-old Melbourne man Nguyen Tuong Van must serve as an example to anyone who believed they could use Singapore as a transit point for distributing drugs.

"He was caught in possession of almost 400 grams (14 ounces) of pure heroin, enough for more than 26,000 doses of heroin for drug addicts," Tarmugi said in the letter to Australian parliamentary speaker David Hawker that was published in News Ltd newspapers.

"He knew what he was doing and the consequences of his action."

Nguyen, who was caught at Singapore's Changi Airport in 2002, is scheduled to be executed on December 2, despite repeated pleas from Australian authorities for clemency.

Howard said his government had done all it could to save Nguyen and he believed the execution would be carried out.

Speaking in Malta, where he is attending a Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, Howard rejected calls for him to ask fellow leaders to put pressure on Singapore.

"People who are making those sorts of statements don't really understand what has already happened and are really maintaining false hopes, quite cruelly in my view," he told reporters.

Howard also labelled as "inappropriate" a suggestion from government backbencher Bruce Baird that Australia link its pleas for clemency to a review now underway of Singapore Airways' access to Australian routes.

"I think to match those two things is foolish and I don't support that," he said.

Howard has already ruled out imposing trade sanctions on Australia's largest trade partner in Southeast Asia, with two-way annual trade of almost US$12 billion.
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