Geithner invites Republican counter-offer

US PRESIDENT Barack Obama is ready for tough concessions to reach a deficit deal, but Republicans must commit to higher tax rates on the rich.

That was the view of Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner who made appearances on five Sunday talk shows to call on Republicans to specify what additional spending cuts they want in a deal to avoid the looming "fiscal cliff."

"The ball really is with them now," Mr Geithner, one of the White House's chief negotiators with Capitol Hill, said.

Mr Geithner presented congressional leaders on Thursday with Mr Obama's postelection blueprint for averting the combination of hundreds of billions in tax increases and spending cuts that will take effect beginning in January if Washington doesn't act to stop it.

But Republican House Speaker John Boehner dismissed the plan as "not serious," merely a Democratic wish list that couldn't pass his chamber.

As outlined by administration officials, the plan calls for nearly $US1.6 trillion ($A1.5 trillion) in new tax revenue over the next decade, while making $US600 billion in spending cuts, including $US350 billion from Medicare and other health programs. But it also contains $US200 billion in new spending on jobless benefits, public works and aid for struggling homeowners - and would make it virtually impossible for Congress to block Mr Obama's ability to raise the debt ceiling.

"I was just flabbergasted," Mr Boehner said, describing his meeting with Mr Geithner. "I looked at him and I said, 'You can't be serious?" The speaker, noting the short time between the November 6 election and the new year, said time has been lost so far "with this nonsense."

With the George W. Bush-era tax cuts expiring and across-the-board spending cuts hitting in under a month, Mr Boehner said, "I would say we're nowhere, period." He said "there's clearly a chance" of going over the cliff.

But Mr Geithner, also in interviews that were taped on Friday, offered a somewhat rosier view. "I think we're far apart still, but I think we're moving closer together," he said.

He called the back-and-forth "normal political theater," voicing confidence a bargain can be struck in time, and said all that's blocking it is GOP acceptance of higher tax rates on the wealthy.

"It's welcome that they're recognizing that revenues are going to have to go up. But they haven't told us anything about how far rates should go up ... (and) who should pay higher taxes?" Mr Geithner said.

He said so far, Republican proposals demonstrate "political math, not real math."

Republican leaders have said they accept higher tax revenue overall, but only through what they call tax reform - closing loopholes and limiting deductions - and only coupled with tough measures to curb the explosive growth of Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.

But Mr Geithner insisted that there's "no path to an agreement (without) Republicans acknowledging that rates have to go up for the wealthiest Americans." He also said the administration would only discuss changes to Social Security "in a separate process," not in talks on the fiscal cliff.

As to spending, Mr Geithner said if Republicans don't think Mr Obama's cutting enough spending, they should make a counter-proposal. "They might want to do some different things. But they have to tell us what those things are," he said.

Republicans have also rejected Mr Obama's debt ceiling proposal. Mr Geithner noted it was Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell who first suggested it, as a temporary measure in the summer 2011 deficit deal. The administration would make it permanent. "It was a very smart way by a senator with impeccable Republican credentials to ... lift this ... periodic threat of default," Mr Geithner said. "And that's an essential thing for us."

Mr Geithner voiced sympathy for Republicans leaders, saying they're caught between the voters' endorsement of higher taxes on the rich and a House Republican caucus that thinks all tax increases are job-killers.

"They really are in a difficult position," he said. "And they're going to have to figure out their politics of what they do next."

In the past week, Mr Obama has held a series of campaign-style appearances - including one in a swing district in Pennsylvania - urging lawmakers to accept a Senate-passed measure extending tax cuts for all but the top 2 per cent of wage-earners. He'll continue the effort when he meets with governors on Tuesday and speaks to the Business Roundtable on Wednesday.

Republican leaders contend letting top-end tax cuts run out would hit small businesses and cost jobs.

Still, Republican Senator Lamar Alexander, said his party colleagues will "hold our nose and raise some revenues" if the result is a deal that reins in runaway debt. But he said the onus is on Mr Obama to knuckle down to talks.

"I'm ready for the president to get off the campaign trail, and get in the White House and get a result," Mr Alexander told reporters in Nashville on Saturday. "Right now he's got the presidential limousine headed toward the fiscal cliff with his foot on the accelerator."

Mr Geithner appeared on CBS' Face the Nation, NBC's Meet the Press, CNN's State of the Union, ABC's This Week, and Fox News Sunday. Mr Boehner was on Fox, too.

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Diggers non-combat injuries 'intolerable'

AT least one in eight Australian soldiers who served in Afghanistan suffered a non-combat related injury or physical or mental illness between 2005 and October 2012.

A senior soldier welfare advocate said a 12.5 per cent casualty rate would not be tolerated in any other workplace or workforce.

"The employer would be held to account," the national president of the Defence Force Welfare Association, David Jamison, told Fairfax Media.

"There would be a royal commission or a judicial inquiry."

According to the figures released by the Australian Defence Force, 18,206 soldiers have served in that time.

The number peaked in 2009 with 851 defence force members - almost one in five - reporting non-combat related illnesses or injuries.

The spike was blamed on "confusion", which led to under-reporting prior to 2009.

According to ADF, of the 3,841 workplace health and safety incidents in Afghanistan, 2,276 had resulted in injury or illness.

Many of the reported injuries and illnesses were minor, including cuts, colds and gastro-enteritis.

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New Zealand slams Kyoto extension

NEW Zealand's climate minister on Sunday strongly defended a decision not to sign an extension of the Kyoto treaty that limits greenhouse gas emissions, saying the pact is outdated, and his country's policy is "ahead of the curve."

At climate negotiations entering their final week in Doha, environmentalists have criticised New Zealand for announcing it wouldn't join a planned extension of the 1997 Kyoto agreement.

"This excessive focus on Kyoto, Kyoto, Kyoto, Kyoto, was fine in the 1990s," Climate Change Minister Tim Groser told The Associated Press in an interview. "But given that it covers only 15 per cent of emissions, I'm sorry, this is not the main game."

Groser said the focus instead should be on creating a new pact that includes the developing countries - echoing a long-held position by the US, which never joined Kyoto.

Most of the world's current emissions come from developing countries, and China is now the world's top emitter. The Kyoto extension, which is supposed to be adopted in Doha, will likely only cover European countries and Australia, which together represent less than 15 per cent of the world's emissions.

"I think it's time for green groups around the world to start to analyse this problem on the basis not of the rhetoric of the '90s, but some numerical analysis of where the problem lies today. Because it's very different," Groser said. "I just think we're ahead of the curve."

Instead of binding targets, New Zealand has offered a voluntary pledge of cutting emissions by between 10 per cent and 20 per cent by 2020, compared to 1990 levels.

The Kyoto extension is designed as a stopgap measure until a wider treaty is in place, scheduled for 2020. Developing countries have urged rich countries to make more ambitious emissions cuts until then.

Groser said New Zealand wouldn't firm up its pledge until after the Doha talks. The country wants to know if it can continue using Kyoto's trading mechanism for emissions credits, which some countries say should only be available to those that set emissions targets.

"I have advised my Cabinet, literally I've said to them, 'assume minimum rationally will prevail,"' Groser said. "Then I will come back after this meeting here and make a recommendation as to what unilateral figure we can do."

Climate activists accused Groser of eroding his country's green image.

"New Zealand is in fact behind the play, as they have chosen not to finalise their emissions reductions targets until well after these talks, unlike most other developed countries," said Simon Tapp from the New Zealand Youth Delegation.

A recent UN report showed greenhouse emissions, primarily from the burning of fossil fuels, have risen 20 per cent since 2000. Most climate scientists say such emissions are fuelling a warming trend, which could lead to devastating shifts in climate, such as flooding of coastal regions and island nations.

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Bombing in Syria's Homs kills 15

FIFTEEN civilians were killed in a bomb attack on Sunday in a government-held district of the central Syrian city of Homs, state media reported.

"A terrorist attack struck the Hamra district of Homs," the state SANA news agency said, adding that it killed 15 people and wounded 24. State television said it was a car bombing.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights too reported a car bombing in Homs but reported fewer casualties.

"At least seven civilians were killed in a car bomb explosion near the sports stadium," it said, adding that many of the wounded were in a critical condition so the death toll was likely to rise.

Amateur video footage posted online by opposition activists showed the bodies of at least three victims, including a woman buried in the rubble of a building as a car burned not far away.

Another video showed a car turned upside down on a pavement, as other vehicles blazed nearby.

A third video showed an injured child lying in hospital, wailing in pain.

Homs is Syria's third largest city and was one of the cradles of the armed uprising against the rule of President Bashar al-Assad, earning it the monicker of "capital of the revolution" from opposition activists.

The city suffered devastating violence early this year but for the past six months the army has preferred to keep mainly Sunni Arab rebel-held districts around the centre under suffocating siege rather than an launching all-out assault.

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Israel called to explain targeting reporters

ISRAEL must provide an "immediate and detailed explanation" for its targeting of journalists during last month's Gaza conflict.

In a letter to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the Committee to Protect Journalists said it was "gravely concerned that Israeli airstrikes targeted individual journalists and media facilities in the Gaza Strip between November 18 and 20."

The New-York based CPJ noted that two cameramen for Hamas's Al-Aqsa television station and the director of the private Al-Quds Educational Radio were killed by Israel during its eight-day military campaign to halt rocket fire from Gaza.

At least three media buildings, including one housing AFP's Gaza office, were hit during the conflict.

"Israeli officials have broadly asserted that the individuals and facilities had connections to terrorist activity but have disclosed no substantiation for these very serious allegations," the letter reads.

The group says it has made repeated requests to Israel's military and defence ministry seeking explanations.

"We request your government provide an immediate and detailed explanation for its actions," CPJ executive director Joel Simon wrote.

Mr Netanyahu's spokesman Mark Regev said Israel would reply to the CPJ's letter via Israel's US ambassador.

He stressed to AFP that "Israel made every effort possible to avoid killing journalists caught up in the crossfire."

"There were a number of situations where terrorist operatives used journalists as human shields, in those cases we acted as surgically as humanly possible," he said.

He blamed Gaza rulers Hamas, as well as militant group Islamic Jihad for adopting "a deliberate policy of using journalists as human shields."

"People concerned about the wellbeing of journalists should possibly raise these concerns with both Hamas and Islamic Jihad, but I suppose one doesn't have high expectations of terrorist groups," he said.

CPJ said all journalists "regardless of the perspective from which they report" were entitled to protection under international law.

"The Israeli government does not have the right to selectively define who is and who is not a journalist based on national identity or media affiliation," the group wrote.

Mr Regev said "nobody is targeted because of their opinions," but his office and the Israeli military could not provide details on the alleged non-media activities of the journalists targeted.

"Many times we cannot share sensitive information with the broad public," army spokesman Aryeh Shalicar said, insisting those targeted were militants.

"Not only were they terrorists, they were using the cover of the press to continue their actions," he said. "Based on our sources, we know exactly who we hit, and stand behind our actions."

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'Now we have a state,' Abbas says

PALESTINIAN president Mahmud Abbas returned to the West Bank on Sunday after winning upgraded UN status for the Palestinians, telling cheering crowds: "Yes, now we have a state."

"Palestine has accomplished a historic achievement at the UN," Abbas added, three days after the United Nations General Assembly granted the Palestinians non-member state observer status in a 138-9 vote.

"The world said in a loud voice... yes to the state of Palestine, yes to Palestine's freedom, yes to Palestine's independence, no to aggression, no to settlements, no to occupation," Abbas told the ecstatic crowd.

Abbas pledged that after the victory at the United Nations, his "first and most important" task would be working to achieve Palestinian unity and reviving efforts to reconcile rival factions Fatah and Hamas.

"We will study over the course of the coming days the steps necessary to achieve reconciliation," he said, as the crowd chanted "The people want the end of the division."

The return was a moment of triumph for Abbas, who last year tried and failed to win the Palestinians full state membership at the United Nations.

The bid stalled in the Security Council, where the veto-wielding United States has vehemently opposed it.

The United States, Israel and a handful of other countries also opposed the Palestinian bid to upgrade their status to that of a non-member observer state, but with no vetoes available in the General Assembly, the measure easily passed.

The move gives the Palestinians access to a range of international institutions, including potentially the International Criminal Court, and raises their international profile after years of stalled peace talks with Israel.

Abbas was received with a full honour guard, descending from his car to walk along a red carpet at the Ramallah presidential headquarters known as the Muqataa, where he shook hands with waiting dignitaries.

He laid a wreath and said a brief prayer at the grave of the iconic late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, who is buried within the presidential complex, later dedicating the UN victory to the former president's memory.

Abbas called the approval a milestone in Palestinian history, saying it was the achievement of Palestinians everywhere.

"Our people everywhere, raise your heads up high because you are Palestinians," he said. "You are stronger than the occupation... because you are Palestinians.

"You are stronger than the settlements because you are Palestinians," he added. "You are making history and Palestine will be drawn on the map very soon."

Abbas's return drew supporters from across the West Bank, including Bajis Bani Fadl, from the northern town of Nablus.

"I came to celebrate this day because the Palestinian leadership accomplished a great achievement, and this is a joy we haven't experienced in our lives," he told AFP.

"President Abbas... took us from a historical stage to a new stage, although it won't be easy to become a state on the ground," Mohammed Bani Audeh, 54, added.

"I know that the pressures will increase on us now, but these pressures don't mean anything, particularly if we achieve our unity."

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Rudd, Turnbull voters' choice, poll shows

ABSENCE has made voters' hearts grow fonder for Kevin Rudd and Malcolm Turnbull, who hold big leads over Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott, a Galaxy poll shows.

After a brutal week in federal parliament, Mr Rudd is preferred leader by 27 per cent of voters, followed by Mr Turnbull with 23 per cent.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard trails with 18 per cent support as better leader and Opposition Leader Tony Abbott at 17 per cent, according to the poll published in The Daily Telegraph.

Mr Rudd and Mr Turnbull enjoy the most support from each others' parties with 18 per cent of coalition supporters tipping Mr Rudd as the better leader while 13 per cent of Labor people think Mr Turnbull is the better leader.

Both former leaders' popularity with voters has bounced back after their standings sank before each was rolled by their parties.

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No US budget deal without tax hikes

LEAD White House negotiator Timothy Geithner insisted Sunday there would be no deal to avert the "fiscal cliff" unless Republicans allowed tax rates on the wealthiest Americans to rise.

Talks to avoid the dreaded "fiscal cliff" are at a dangerous impasse after President Barack Obama's opening gambit in the high-stakes negotiations was shot down by leading Republicans on Thursday as "ridiculous."

Markets are jittery as, without a deal by the year-end, a poison pill of tax hikes and massive spending cuts, including slashes to the military, comes into effect with potentially catastrophic effects for the fragile US economy.

Budget negotiations go right to the heart of ideological differences between Democrats and Republicans on the size and scope of government, but the biggest sticking point has clearly been on tax rates for high-earners.

Obama campaigned on a platform of raising taxes on individuals who make more than $200,000 per year and on families that rake in more than $250,000, as a way of raising extra revenue to tame the deficit.

Republicans insist that raising taxes on the wealthy would be counter-productive, hurt small business owners, slow economic growth and dampen job creation.

"There's not going to be an agreement without rates going up. There's not," Geithner told CNN's State of the Union program, saying the ball was in the Republicans' court to propose a counter-offer to the Obama plan.

Republicans say they are ready to raise more revenue from wealthy Americans, but want to do so by closing tax loopholes and limiting deductions rather than by raising income tax rates.

"Increasing tax rates draws money away from our economy that needs to be invested in our economy to put the American people back to work," Republican House Speaker John Boehner said on Friday. "It's the wrong approach."

Geithner, the tough-talking treasury secretary chosen as Obama's pointman in the talks, took to the Sunday morning news shows to step up pressure on Republicans to propose a plan that embraces the spirit of compromise.

"What we did is put forward a very comprehensive, very carefully designed mix of savings and tax rates to help us put us back on a path to stabilising our debt, fixing our debt and living within our means," he said.

"We don't expect them to like all of those proposals. But all we can do is lay out what we believe in and then ask them to come back to us and tell us what they would prefer to do."

Geithner said the two sides were still "far apart," but expressed hope they were moving closer together.

Former Republican president George W Bush introduced across-the-board tax cuts that were framed as "temporary" measures back in 2001 and 2003.

The top income tax rate, which now stands at 35 percent, will automatically revert to 39.6 percent at the beginning of 2013 unless there is a new budget deal.

Obama is urging the Republicans to extend the Bush-era tax cuts for all but the top bracket, roughly 98 percent of Americans, and campaigned on this promise before winning re-election on November 6.

Republican soul-searching in the wake of Mitt Romney's decisive electoral defeat has seen several leading figures indicate a willingness to accept a deal that includes more revenue, but only by ending loopholes in the tax code and in return for cuts in funding to Democrats' beloved welfare programs.

"They're in a hard place. And they're having a tough time trying to figure out what they can do, what they can get support from their members for," Geithner said.

"If they are going to force higher rates on virtually all Americans because they're unwilling to let tax rates go up on 2 percent of Americans, then, I mean that's the choice they're going to have to make," said Geithner.

"But they'll own the responsibility for the damage."

The year-end deadline is the result of legislation passed when Republicans and Democrats failed to reach a previous long-term deficit and budget deal, and was meant to concentrate minds of lawmakers and spur compromise.

The parties are also feuding about where to cut expenditures, with some Republicans opposed to any trimming of the military budget and Democrats guarding social safety net entitlement programs.

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