George Bush and Kevin Rudd

Bush's prickly welcome for Rudd | World News | News.com.au

Bush's prickly welcome for Rudd

By Sandra O'Malley


THE leaking of a telephone conversation between Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and US President George W Bush seems to have taken the gloss off their once-chummy relationship.

As he joined other world leaders for dinner at the White House today, the Prime Minister received a rather perfunctory greeting from the US President during what was their first meeting since a controversy erupted in Australia over the alleged diplomatic breach.

Leaders from the Group of 20 (G20) nations met for a working dinner which heralded the start of the summit aimed at tackling the global financial crisis.

Tomorrow, they will meet at the National Building Museum to thrash out the beginnings of a strategy to stem a threatened global recession.

Mr Rudd is pushing for coordinated action by each nation to boost growth and employment, helping support the economy.

As leaders arrived tonight, they were individually welcomed by the outgoing president.
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France and America have had their differences but Mr Bush had a wide grin and a slap on the back for French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Mr Bush warmly embraced the Italian and Brazilian leaders and even Russian President Dmitry Medvedev got a smile and a long handshake.

By comparison, a beaming Mr Rudd received what, at best, could be described as a business-like greeting.

Mr Bush remained impassive as he briefly shook Mr Rudd's hand, barely looking the Prime Minister in the eye before turning to the cameras and television crews.

And, as they entered the White House, it was Mr Rudd who tried to add some warmth to the moment, patting the US leader on the back.

The encounter was a far cry from the friendly and jovial press conference the pair gave in the prestigious East Room of the White House in March on Mr Rudd's first visit to the US as Prime Minister.

But while the body language looked bad, the long-term impact remains debatable.

Mr Bush will hand over the keys to the White House in January, giving Mr Rudd a clean slate with new leader Barack Obama.

Late tonight, Mr Rudd's office noted he was the only G20 leader to be given the privilege of holding his press conference in the same venue as the summit.

The dinner was the first contact between the leaders since the alleged leaking last month of a telephone conversation between the pair to discuss the financial turmoil.

The controversy centres around a claim in The Australian newspaper on October 25 that Mr Bush asked Mr Rudd: "What's the G20?", an allegation since denied by both Canberra and Washington.

But if the President was miffed, the Prime Minister knew he had at least one strong ally in the room.

Earlier, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown praised Mr Rudd for the leading role he had played in trying to promote solutions to deal with the global financial turmoil.

Mr Rudd and Mr Brown are both strong proponents of a fiscal stimulus strategy to try to put the brakes on the economic slowdown sweeping the world.

"The challenge we face is: one, the stabilisation of the financial system now; two, proper regulations for the future operations of financial markets; and three, most critically, to the greatest extent possible, coordinated fiscal and monetary policy action to support growth and jobs in the critical year which lies ahead," Mr Rudd told reporters.

"This is not just a question of high policy debate.

"This is of direct relevance to households right across the world."

During a jam-packed day, Mr Rudd held a series of bilateral meetings with political and economic leaders, including World Bank president Robert Zoellick, IMF managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn and US Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson.

Mr Rudd also spoke to defeated Republican presidential nominee John McCain by telephone.