John Howard praised Queensland Premier Peter Beattie, who on Sunday announced that residents in the state's tinder-dry southeast would be drinking recycled waste water as early as next year, whether they liked it or not.

"I am very strongly in favour of recycling, and Mr. Beattie is right and I agree with him completely," Howard told commercial radio. "I've advocated recycling for a long time."

Beattie said record-low inflows to dams had left his government with no alternative but to dump plans for a public referendum on the issue intended for March.

"The reality is at the moment we have no choice, we have to provide people with water," he said.

"It's not like we are part of a freak show -- the rest of the world is doing this," he said, referring to residents in Singapore, London, Washington and southern California, whom he said drank recycled water.

Much of Australia is enduring what has been described as the worst drought in a century and most major cities already have water restrictions in place.

Beattie's move was greeted with resignation by anti-recycling campaigner Clive Berghofer, the former mayor of the drought-stricken southeastern town of Toowoomba, whose residents rejected recycled water in a referendum last July.

"Politicians are ducking for cover because they have neglected (water) infrastructure for years and are now panicking," he said.

Berghofer said the move would ruin the city's clean and green image, and the use of recycled water in agriculture would damage the region's economy.

"A lot of our food is exported, and the Japanese especially are particular about these things. People don't realise the implications of doing these things," he told AFP.

Berghofer also questioned the safety of drinking treated sewage, saying there were many chemicals that could still not could not be detected.

Although state governments in Victoria, New South Wales, South Australia and Western Australia have vowed not to follow Queensland, Beattie predicted all governments would eventually have to introduce the same measures.

"I think in the end, because of the drought, all of Australia is going to end up drinking recycled purified water," Beattie told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

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