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"The prime minister's fingerprints are all over this. Every letter, every paragraph, is dripping with his DNA," conservative opposition leader Malcolm Turnbull told lawmakers.
Rudd has also denied Bush made the comments but the row could damage his centre-left government's relations with Washington, Australia's closest and most important ally.
In the newspaper article, Bush is said to have asked Rudd: "What's the G20?", referring to the group of rich and emerging nations including China and Brazil.Bush has called the group together for a meeting on the global financial crisis in Washington this week.
The U.S. ambassador to Australia and U.S. officials in Washington denied Bush had asked the question, as well as Australian accounts that Rudd was influential in Bush's decision to call a G20 crisis gathering rather than a smaller group of rich nations.
Rudd faced two days of questioning in parliament and refused repeatedly to deny that he or his staff had leaked the content of the telephone conversation, which reportedly occurred on a night when Rudd was having dinner with The Australian's editor.
"(It was) an account so self-serving that it presented him as a diplomatic encyclopedia, a font of all knowledge, and the President of the United States, the chief executive of our greatest ally, as a fool," Turnbull said.
Rudd, a Mandarin-speaking former diplomat with close China ties, has enjoyed record approval since his election a year ago, and has used his international experience to underpin his government's handling of the global financial upheaval.