Australian election rivals Rudd and Abbott hold first debate

Australia's Labor Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and opposition leader Tony Abbott are due to meet in the first televised debate of the election campaign.

The candidates will face an hour of questioning from a panel of journalists in the capital, Canberra.

Correspondents say the economy and the issue of asylum seekers are likely to dominate the debate.

Current opinion polls put Mr Abbott and his Liberal-National coalition in the lead for the 7 September election.

However, Mr Rudd's Labor Party has significantly narrowed its lead since he ousted his predecessor, Julia Gillard, in June.

He told reporters that Mr Abbott's poll lead meant the pressure would be on the opposition leader in the debate to justify his budget plans.

"Based on today's polls if there was an election yesterday Mr Abbott would be prime minister today and therefore he can't be evasive tonight about where his $70bn ($65bn: £42bn) in cuts in health, education and jobs will fall," said.

Mr Abbott said it would be clear to Australians well before polling day "exactly what we are spending and exactly what we are saving", AFP reports.

Sunday's debate, which begins at 18:30 local time (08:30 GMT), is the first of three such possible meetings before polling day.

The BBC's Jon Donnison in Sydney says Australian politics are often combative and plain-speaking, so it is likely to be a feisty exchange.

Australia's economy, having largely avoid the global financial crisis, is beginning to struggle, says our correspondent, so will feature heavily.

Labor last week announced an A$200m package to assist the car industry.

Mr Abbott, meanwhile, pledged to repeal Australia's carbon tax at his first campaign event in Brisbane.

Both candidates have also already been campaigning on the heated topic of immigration, and how to stop illegal migrants reaching Australian shores.