Australia PM Gillard gains, but still losing election race

SYDNEY — Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard made gains in the election race after her peace pact with axed former leader Kevin Rudd but was set to lose office on August 21, polls showed Saturday.Gillard's popularity lifted one point to 49 percent against conservative rival Tony Abbott's 51 percent, after her flagging campaign was thrown a series of lifelines -- most critically the offer of a truce from the ousted Rudd.But the flame-haired former lawyer has just two weeks to lift her support to electable levels and repair the damage wrought by Rudd's brutal dumping and high-level leaks about her opposition to popular welfare reforms.The latest Nielsen poll of 1,356 Australians showed a drop in Abbott's popularity from 52 percent last Saturday but he was still on track to unseat the ruling Labor party after just one term in office.It was conducted in a period when the Reserve Bank buoyed Gillard's bid to fight the election on economic management by holding interest rates steady and the once popular Rudd exploded back onto the scene with a vow to help her win.The pair were set to meet Saturday for the first time since the former premier was unceremoniously unseated in a shock party room coup which installed Gillard as Australia's first female leader in June.Of those surveyed by Nielsen, 63 percent said Gillard had the confidence of her party against Abbott's 73 percent, and he also led her on foreign policy after she bungled plans to build a refugee processing centre in East Timor.But Gillard outstripped the one-time trainee priest on every other measure, including competence, openness to ideas, having a clear vision for Australia's future and the ability to make things happen, and being a strong leader.More people believed she understood the issue of climate change, 55 percent to Abbott's 40 percent, and that she had a grip on social policy, 69 percent to 51 percent.The contenders were neck-and-neck on the economy, 52 percent rating Abbott's credentials to Gillard's 55 percent, as she tries to claim cr

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