SYDNEY - A plucky Australian schoolboy who asked a former Miss Universe to his school dance, only to be rebuffed, has finally had his dream date over lunch.

Miss Universe 2004 Jennifer Hawkins gestures during a promotional event for a new property in Hong Kong August 24, 2005. A plucky Australian schoolboy who asked the former Miss Universe to his school dance, only to be rebuffed, has finally had his dream date over lunch. [Reuters]

Daniel Dibley, 17, needed a partner for the school dance in the Australian country town of Bathurst, west of Sydney, and he decided to aim high.

He wrote to Australia's best-known beauty queen, Jennifer Hawkins, to ask her to the dance, and was stunned when the 2004 Miss Universe accepted.

But in a decision that would break a schoolboy's heart, Hawkins later pulled out of the date because the overwhelming publicity had overshadowed plans for the end-of-year dance, which is for students in their final year of high school.

Instead, the Seven television network said Hawkins visited Dibley's Bathurst High School on Tuesday for a private lunch date with Daniel, and to speak to the school assembly, where she apologized for all the fuss.

"I didn't want you guys to think I didn't want to come to Bathurst, or I didn't want come to the formal (dance)," Hawkins, now a television presenter, told the school assembly.

"I did. It just became too big. I just wanted a low-key thing."