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Just days before traveling to
"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.
The White House has rejected accounts of a private phone call last month between Rudd and Bush, carried in The Australian newspaper.
Rudd has also denied Bush made the comments but the row could damage his centre-left government's relations with
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
Bush has called the group together for a meeting on the global financial crisis in
The
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.
Turnbull said the apparent indiscretion by Rudd or a top aide meant
"(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 has also refused to agree to a police probe into the security breach.
Rudd, a Mandarin-speaking former diplomat with close
A closely watched Newspoll in The Australian on Tuesday said the bookish leader's approval rating was at a near-record 65 percent.