SYDNEY, October 21 (News Agencies) - Australian leaders will meet this week to discuss a broad national security review after the Bali bombing, including plans for a Homeland Security department like that created in the United States after September 11.

Prime Minister John Howard's office said he would meet Thursday, October 24, with top officials from state and federal governments to kick off the review, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

The meeting will be held immediately after a national memorial service in parliament for families of Australian victims of the attack.

A total of 92 Australians are feared to have died in the blast which killed more than 187 people.

Howard has come under pressure since the October 12 bombing to overhaul the country's defenses against possible terrorist attacks and redirect its overseas security focus to southeast Asia.

The government has also been accused of failing to act on U.S. and other intelligence reports before the bombing that tourist sites in Bali were likely terrorist targets.

The Premier of New South Wales, Australia's most populous state, called Sunday, October 20, for the creation of a Homeland Security Ministry that would bring together defense, police and intelligence agencies under one structure.

The (proposed) Ministry would be styled on the Department of Homeland Security created in the U.S. by President George W. Bush after the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington.

"Terror has moved closer," NSW Premier Bob Carr said in proposing the new cabinet office in light of the increased threats made apparent by the bombing in Bali.

"Australia could come under attack at any time," Carr said. "We must be ready to defend our people".

Howard said he would consider Carr's proposal, but was not convinced it was the best approach.

"I will be looking at the existing structure of the intelligence community and whether the relationship between the various agencies is right," he said on commercial radio.

But he added that "changing the name of a department (or) reshuffling ministerial names is not of itself necessarily the answer."

Howard's conservative government has been trying to push a raft of new counter-terrorism measures through parliament for months, but has faced resistance from the main opposition Labor Party and other groups.

Parliament has already adopted measures setting out tough penalties for a series of newly defined terrorism offenses.

But it has balked at adopting the most controversial measures giving the intelligence service, ASIO, greater powers to monitor, detain and question terrorist suspects.

Those measures looked headed for defeat in the Senate on Monday after a key right-wing lawmaker joined the Labor Party in saying they posed an unacceptable threat to civil liberties.

"It is critical that in responding to a terrorist threat we must hold fast to the rule of law," said Glen Harris of the One Nation party.

"Secret detention, fails that test. Abolition of the right to remain silent fails that test," he said. "On the scales of justice, we are distinctly losing the balance."

The Bali bombing is also expected to impact on a review of Australia's overall defense strategy ordered after the September 11 attacks and due out in coming weeks.

Howard's government has come under criticism for placing too much of emphasis on backing the U.S. global approach to terrorism, notably its confrontation with Iraq, rather than focusing on dangers closer to home.

Signaling a change in approach, Howard said over the weekend that his government's "first priority" would now be "to protect our own patch" in the region, where al-Qaeda is believed to be very active.

In a possible first step, ASIO was reported Monday to have opened a full-time office in the Indonesian capital to improve counter-terrorism efforts and coordinate more closely with Indonesian intelligence.

The Australian Financial Review quoted senior intelligence officials as saying the ASIO move was ordered by Foreign Minister Alexander Downer after the Bali bombing.

Meanwhile, ASIO is setting up a permanent office in Jakarta as part of moves to step up regional counter-terrorism efforts following the Bali bombing, officials said Monday.

Attorney-General Daryl Williams told parliament the ASIO liaison office would be opened with immediate effect.

"A decision has been made to immediately enhance the ASIO presence in Indonesia," he said.

The move reflected the government's growing concern with the rise of Islamic radicalism in Indonesia since the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and the rout of the al-Qaeda network in Afghanistan.

Australia had been planning to upgrade its presence in Indonesia since early this year, but swung into action after the October 12 bombing in Bali.

The move came after the government and the intelligence communities drew withering criticism for failing to adequately warn Australians about the danger of traveling to Bali despite receiving U.S. intelligence reports naming the island as a likely terrorist target.