Former foreign minister Alexander Downer, Australia's longest-serving, quits politics

Alexander Downer announced Thursday he is quitting Australian politics following a career as the country's longest-serving foreign minister and one of its highest-profile leaders of the past decade.

Downer, who was ousted from power at elections last year along with the rest of Prime Minister John Howard's conservative government, said he is in talks on taking a job as a special U.N. envoy on the conflict in Cyprus.

Downer, 56, declined to run for the leadership of his Liberal party after the coalition that had ruled since 1996 lost elections last November and has languished on the back benches of parliament while considering his future.

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