Speaking to France's Le Figaro newspaper ahead of a meeting in Paris, Tuesday November 29, with French President Jacques Chirac, Lee justified Singapore's position when asked specifically about the case of Nguyen Tuong Van.

The 25-year-old Australian man of Vietnamese background was was arrested at Changi airport three years ago while in transit from Cambodia to Australia with 400 grams (14 ounces) of heroin in his possession.

Lee said that the death penalty -- which is mandatory for the trafficking of significant amounts of drugs in Singapore -- "is necessary and is part of the criminal justice system," according to his interview translated into French and published Tuesday.

"We also think that drug trafficking is a crime that deserves the death penalty. The evil inflicted on thousands of people with drug trafficking demands that we must tackle the source by punishing the traffickers rather than trying to pick up the pieces afterwards," he said.

"It's a law which is approved of by Singapore's inhabitants and which allows us to reduce the drug problem."

The impending execution of Nguyen, scheduled for Friday, has created an uproar in Australia, where capital punishment was abolished in 1985. Some groups have called for unofficial retaliation including economic sanctions and a boycott of Singapore firms.

The Australian government has appealed for clemency, stressing Nguyen's remorse, his assistance to police and his lack of prior convictions, but admitted that Singapore was unlikely to grant a reprieve.

Singapore's Home Affairs Ministry has that 66 Singaporeans and 22 foreigners have been executed from 2001 to September 2005. The island state has just over four million inhabitants.

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