Aussie APEC leaders warned: Beware the "budgie smugglers"

SYDNEY (AFP) - The 21 presidents and prime ministers heading for an international summit in Sydney in September should be afraid, very afraid.

A tradition of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum's annual get together is that the leaders don the host country's national dress for a group photograph.

Over the years the VIPs -- including the US, Russian and Chinese presidents and a host of regional leaders -- have been pictured in a range of bright Asian silks, Chilean ponchos and Canadian leather jackets.

Speculation over what the leaders will be asked to wear in down-to-earth, 'G'day mate' Australia has begun to preoccupy the chattering classes.

A popular guess is the rugged look of a classic Australian oilskin raincoat made famous in the movie "The Man from Snowy River," perhaps teamed with an Akubra hat, the Australian version of the cowboy hat.

That could fit with Prime Minister John Howard's pledge that the outfits to be worn by the likes of US President George W. Bush, Russia's Vladimir Putin and China's Hu Jintao would have "a distinctly Australian flavour."

But so could another classic Australian outfit suggested in the letters pages of The Australian newspaper Monday -- the tiny, tight men's bathing briefs known here as "budgie smugglers," for obvious reasons.

One major point in favour of the budgie smuggler option in this surf-and-sand-crazed society would be that it is cheap.

The head of the APEC taskforce, Alan Henderson, said last week the budget for the outfits would be modest.

He said Howard and his wife Janette were reviewing the final designs for the national outfit and the process was shrouded in secrecy.

Henderson said it was likely that the various clothing sizes of world leaders could be classified as state secrets.

That could, perhaps, be a small consolation for some of the male heads of state if the chosen outfits were indeed budgie smugglers.

The women at the summit, including New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clarke and President Gloria Arroyo of the Philippines, would presumably be allowed bikinis.

But despite the fun Australia's cartoonists have had with the idea, the betting is on the oilskins.