Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard's government has renewed its plea to opposition parties to support the bill to allow offshore processing of asylum seekers in Malaysia amid the surge in boat arrivals since October. Australian authorities intercepted a boat carrying 116 asylum seekers near Christmas Island on Tuesday, adding to the predicted figure of around 600 arrivals a month. Immigration Minister Chris Bowen says Opposition Leader, Tony Abbott should support Labor's bill. “If the opposition is saying today that they want to see offshore processing revived- good,” said Bowen. “Let them vote for it in the House of Representatives.” On October 13 Gillard abandoned plans to put Labor's bill to a vote after it became inevitable that the party could not win enough parliamentary support for it. The opposition says it would only support the bill if the government supported proposed amendments. Amendments would allow offshore processing to take place in Nauru but not Malaysia because it is not a party to the UN refugee convention. BM