Singapore ? Singapore executed a 25-year-old Australian today for drug trafficking, after he had a “beautiful last visit” with his family. Australia’s leader protested the sentence, saying it would damage ties.

Nguyen Tuong Van was hanged before dawn as a dozen friends and supporters, dressed in black, kept an overnight vigil outside the maximum-security prison. His twin brother, Nguyen Khoa, was dressed in white.

Australian Prime Minister John Howard said Nguyen’s execution would damage relations between the two countries.

“I have told the prime minister of Singapore that I believe it will have an effect on the relationship on a people-to-people, population-to-population basis,” Howard told Melbourne radio station 3AW shortly before Singapore confirmed it carried out the execution.

But Howard added that Australia would not take diplomatic action against the city-state.

“The government itself is not going to take punitive measures against the government of Singapore,” he said.

Vigils were held in cities across Australia, with bells and gongs sounding 25 times at the hour of Nguyen’s execution.

Nguyen received a mandatory death sentence after he was caught in 2002 at Singapore’s airport on his way home to Melbourne carrying about 14 ounces of heroin.

Singapore has executed more than 100 people for drug-related offenses since 1999, saying its tough laws and penalties are an effective deterrent against a crime that ruins lives. By contrast, Australia scrapped the death penalty in 1973 and hanged its last criminal in 1967.

While Australian leaders lashed out at the death sentence as “barbaric” and pleaded for clemency for Nguyen, Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong had ruled out a reprieve.

Nguyen visited with his mother, Kim, twin brother, Nguyen Khoa, a friend and his attorneys Thursday afternoon.

An attorney, Lex Lasry, said the family had a “beautiful last visit.” Julian McMahon, another attorney, said Nguyen’s mother had been allowed to hold her son’s hand and touch his face in her last visit.

“That was a great comfort to her,” McMahon said.