The plan drew an immediate recrimination from Prime Minister John Howard, who has said he is against any heroin trial similar to the one long underway in Switzerland. ``I'm against heroin shooting galleries. I don't think there is any evidence they are of benefit and they send a bad signal,'' Howard said in a TV interview.

Aiding and abetting the self-administration of a prohibited drug is a crime in Australia and carries a penalty of up to two years in jail and a fine. The facility proposed by Church leaders would be called the Tolerance Room, or T-Room, and offer drug addicts a safe place to inject heroin, under medical supervision, with clean equipment.

The plan, first reported in The Australian newspaper, stood as evidence of the helplessness Church leaders and public health experts feel as they try to deal with aballooning heroin problem. The newspaper said the shooting gallery would be operated by Church leaders but did not identify the organisers undertaking what they called an act of civil disobedience. ``If a law is inhibiting saving people's lives and preventing disease, I don't think it's a useful law and it should be challenged,'' one of the organisers was quoted as saying. Since 1991, the number of people dying from heroin overdoses in Australia has more than doubled to an estimated 600 people each year.