The US State Department has criticised Australian Opposition leader Mark Latham for saying his country's alliance with America was not an equal partnership.
The rebuke was an unusual move for Washington, which seldom comments on domestic Australian politics.
The Sydney Morning Herald said officials had deliberated for several days before deciding to
react to Latham's comments, made last week.
"The alliance between Australia and the US is a partnership of equals in principle and in reality," the paper quoted an unidentified official as saying.
"Characterisations to the contrary are neither well-informed nor well-based."
Latham accused Prime Minister John Howard's Government of playing a subservient role in the alliance, forged in the aftermath of World War II, and concentrating too much on links with Washington at the cost of ties with Asia.
