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Sydney (ANTARA News/AFP) - An alliance of Australian lawyers, academics and politicians wants former prime minister John Howard to be prosecuted for war crimes over the invasion of Iraq, a report said Monday.

A legal brief had been sent to the International Criminal Court (ICC) alleging that Howard committed a war crime by contributing troops to the US-led invasion in March 2003, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation said.

A spokesman for the organisers, the Melbourne-based ICC Action group, told the broadcaster that Howard should be held accountable for sending soldiers to a war not sanctioned by the United Nations.

"We have produced a 52-page brief of evidence which states to the chief prosecutor of the criminal court that we allege John Howard`s actions are war crimes under article 8 of the Rome Statute," said spokesman Glen Floyd.

Senator Lyn Allison of the Australian Democrats, described as one of several eminent people supporting the move, told ABC that accountability was important.

"This action has been taken to hold those accountable for their action, so it`s essentially our prime minister -- he was the one at the time [who] was the executive of government," she said.

"It wasn`t put to the parliament and as we all know, it turned out to be unjustified."

Howard was ousted in elections in November by now Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, who announced in parliament Monday that Australia`s 550 combat troops had begun withdrawing from Iraq in line with a pledge made ahead of the vote.

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