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SYDNEY, Sept 25 (AFP) - Australian Prime Minister John Howard has surged to a huge election-winning lead following his hardline stand against asylum-seekers and his support for US military action, two new polls showed Tuesday.

Just weeks from an election tipped for November, polls by the Sydney Morning Herald and The Australian both show his conservative coalition poised for victory with a lead of at least 15 percentage points over the Labor opposition.

Both polls also showed Howard's personal standing at a five-year high, while opposition Labor leader Kim Beazley's had slipped correspondingly.

The Australian's Newspoll estimated Howard's popularity rating had jumped 11 points in two weeks to 61 percent, while the Herald's ACNielsen poll gave him an even higher approval rating of 65 percent.

The two polls come just a week after one published by The Bulletin magazine last week which gave the government a 20 point lead.

It was dismissed at the time by Howard who said: "I don't believe that poll and I would counsel supporters of the government to realise that we live in a very volatile political climate."

As the world prepares for war against terrorism, Australians appear to have rallied behind a man they see as a strong leader while they desert a Labor opposition, despite both sides using insecurity to try to bolster their position.

The polls reflect a virtual reversal in public sentiment since the government's electoral low-point after a series of electoral disasters in February and March when Labor held what appeared an unassailable lead.

While Howard has benefited from what is seen as uncompromising and resolute toughness, Beazley has suffered from perceptions that he is the exact opposite.

The reversal has occurred at remarkable speed -- in a month since Howard decided to refuse entry to 433 asylum seekers rescued from their sinking ferry boat by the Norwegian freighter Tampa off Indonesia on August 26.

A graph in The Australian shows support leaping from the start of what became known here as "the Tampa stand-off" and again immediately after the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington on September 11 when Howard pledged support for US military retaliation.

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