CANBERRA (Reuters) - Tony Abbott relishes a fight, but Australia's new conservative prime minister needs to find a reserve of diplomacy before his first overseas trip to Indonesia, with time fast running out on his "stand or fall" election pledge to stop asylum boats.
Abbott, a former champion boxer with a reputation for combativeness, arrives in Jakarta on September 30 for talks with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on his promise to have Australia's navy turn asylum-seekers away at sea and break the business of people traffickers operating from Indonesian ports.