Foreign embassies and ambassadorial mansions in Canberra are not bound by Australian laws or the tough water restrictions due to their diplomatic status.

"Shorter showers and not watering the garden have become a reality for all Australians, but our foreign guests are failing to abide by our rules," The Daily Telegraph, the biggest-selling paper in Australia's largest city Sydney said on Wednesday.

"No drought on foreign soil," said the capital's Canberra Times.

The lush grounds of Japan's mission, with its cherry blossom trees in front and ornamental garden behind, was pictured in most newspapers, although the nearby US and South African missions also have extensive lawns.

"Embassies, when in Rome, should do what the Romans do," one Canberra lawmaker said during a week in which spring temperatures touched 34 degrees Celsius (93 Fahrenheit).

Water levels in many reservoirs across Australia have fallen by more than two thirds and some cities have almost no water. Earlier this month, water officials told a summit of national and state political leaders that the drought could be the most severe in 1,000 years.

An Australian Bureau of Statistics report this week said national water use had dropped 14 percent in the four years to 2005 as the country's 20 million people became wary of waste.

Malcolm Turnbull, charged by Prime Minister John Howard with re-thinking Australia's use of water, said he would prefer restrictions applied to all in the world's driest inhabited continent.

"I think water restrictions should apply across the board, but I don't want to delve into the embassies lest I create a diplomatic incident," Turnbull told reporters.