Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull launched the attack as he moved to censure the Prime Minister in Parliament yesterday and press the Government to call in the Australian Federal Police to investigate the leak.

The Government used its numbers to block the move, which Foreign Minister Stephen Smith dismissed as a stunt. The row centres on a recent conversation between Mr Rudd and US President George W.Bush who will attend a G20 meeting on the global financial crisis soon.

The Australian newspaper reported the outgoing President had asked Mr Rudd ''what's the G20?'' during the conversation a claim denied by both administrations.

Mr Turnbull asked in question time yesterday if the leak had come from Mr Rudd or his office.

Mr Rudd only commented on the content on the report, saying ''any suggestion that the President was not fully aware of the role of the G20 is not accurate and that has been my position throughout''.

Mr Turnbull moved that the House should censure the Prime Minister for failing to deny allegations that he or his office leaked the information.

''We have seen a Prime Minister who has been given the opportunity not once, not twice but again and again to deny that he leaked a self-serving account of a conversation between himself and the President of the United States an account so self-serving that it presented him as a diplomatic encyclopaedia ... and the President of the United States ... as a fool,'' he said.''... Around the world, Kevin Rudd, Prime Minister of Australia, is marked not to be trusted. This has been a shocking betrayal of our nation's reputation.''

It was left to Mr Smith to defend the Prime Minister. ''What a surprise that we have a stunt from the Leader of the Opposition, covering up for the plagiarism of the Deputy Leader of the Opposition [Julie Bishop] the queen of plagiarism.''

He rejected suggestions the Australia-US relationship had been damaged, saying Mr Rudd was one of the first leaders to speak with US President-elect Barack Obama.

''Let's now come to what has damaged the standing of Australia in the United States and put at risk the relationship between Australia and the United States,'' Mr Smith said.

''That is the Liberal Party saying that President-elect Obama was a terrorist.''

Mr Rudd's failure to speak on the censure motion caused uproar within Opposition ranks, which saw frontbenchers Joe Hockey and Andrew Robb ejected from the chamber. Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner accused Mr Robb of attacking Treasury secretary Dr Ken Henry who will address the National Press Club today.

''We have seen it in a coordinated, concerted attack on the secretary ... by no less than three members of the Liberal Party one of whom is a senior frontbencher alleging manipulation of the Treasury forecasts in the Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook, alleging that the secretary of the Treasury is an activist and alleging that the Treasury has lost all of its credibility and that it should take a close look at itself,'' he said.