Australian PM Kevin Rudd rocked by leadership challenge

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd was forced into a party leadership vote today in a challenge from his deputy months before the country goes to the polls.

Mr Rudd called a late-night news conference to announce that his Labor Party would hold a vote tomorrow to decide whether he or deputy prime minister Julia Gillard would lead it into the election.

Speculation that Mr Rudd would be toppled has grown in recent weeks after a remarkable turnaround in opinion polls in which he has fallen from being one of Australia's most popular leaders to one in danger of being removed from office after just one term.

The plunge in the polls has been largely because of domestic issues such as a multimillion-dollar advertising campaign by the mining industry against Mr Rudd's plans for profit taxes and his flip-flop on proposals for a carbon trading scheme to combat global warming.

Mr Rudd, who scored a landslide election victory against an 11-year-old Liberal government in 2008, blamed factions within his party for plotting against him and vowed to fight the challenge.

"I was elected by the people of Australia as prime minister of Australia," Rudd said. "I was elected to do a job. I intend to continue doing that job."

Ms Gillard confirmed that she would run against Mr Rudd in the leadership vote, hours before the Prime Minister is due to fly to the weekend G20 summit in Canada.