Australian PM denies Bush G20 gaffeAustralian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd Editing of this page by unregistered or newly registered users is currently disabled due to vandalism. Monday denied a report alleging that US President George W. Bush had asked him what the G20 was, amid mounting political tensions over the embarrassing story.
The newspaper report alleged that Rudd had pushed Bush for a summit of G20 nations during a telephone call about the global financial crisis on October 10 and had been stunned stun tr.v. stunned, stun·ning, stuns 1. To daze or render senseless, by or as if by a blow. 2. To overwhelm or daze with a loud noise. 3. when the US president had asked: "What's the G20?" The Weekend Australian report, which cited unnamed sources, said the phone call had occurred during a dinner party hosted by Rudd at his official residence in Sydney. Rudd said he had phoned Bush to discuss the role of the G20, which brings together the world's largest industrialised Adj. 1. industrialised - made industrial; converted to industrialism; "industrialized areas" industrialized industrial - having highly developed industries; "the industrial revolution"; "an industrial nation" and emerging economies, in the crisis and stressed that the US leader had not been ignorant of the body. "The president of the United States The head of the Executive Branch, one of the three branches of the federal government. The U.S. Constitution sets relatively strict requirements about who may serve as president and for how long. has consistently emphasised the importance of the G20 in response to the global financial crisis," Rudd told reporters. "The purpose of my call to the president was specifically to discuss the role of the G20. "That was the explicit purpose of the call and the president did not make the remarks that have been attributed to him in the article in question." Rudd would not confirm whether the story came from his office. "On the source of individual stories... there are multiple conversations with multiple people from political offices and elsewhere which leads to the construction of a story," he said. Conservative opposition leader Malcolm Turnbull Malcolm Bligh Turnbull (born 24 October 1954), Australian politician, is the Federal Minister for Environment and Water Resources. He is a Liberal member of the Australian House of Representatives, representing the Division of Wentworth in Sydney's eastern suburbs since October has called on Rudd to apologise to Bush for leaking details of the phone call. The alleged exchange was leaked "in a way that was clearly authoritative, that clearly came from the prime minister's office The Prime Minister's Office is a small department which provides advice to a Prime Minister in some countries:
Former foreign minister Alexander Downer Alexander John Gosse Downer, MP (born 9 September 1951), Australian politician, became Foreign Minister of Australia in March 1996 This makes him the longest serving Foreign Minister in Australian history. , who served in the previous conservative government, has called for an investigation into the alleged leak. The G20 will meet in Washington on November 15 at Bush's invitation to discuss the financial crisis and Rudd is expected to attend. 
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