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Rudd may "informally" meet Obama during G20 summit
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-11-06 09:22

CANBERRA -- Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said Thursday Prime Minister Kevin Rudd may make informal contact with US president-elect Barack Obama in Washtington while attending the scheduled G20 summit next week,

Rudd, as one of the G20 leaders, will be taking part in discussions on the global financial crisis on November 15.

"There may be some informal contact between president-elect Obama and some of those (G20) leaders," Smith told Sky News.

Reports said Australian government officials were requesting time with Senator Obama to allow Rudd to offer congratulations after the election in the United States.

Smith also said that traditionally, whilst there is a transitional plan, "the US president-elect takes a pretty low profile."

"It may well be that president-elect Obama's transitional team has a much greater role in the on-going global financial crisis deliberations and possibly Senator Obama himself. But the tradition has been that the president-elect waits until inauguration day ... before starting that fully-fledged contact with other nations' leaders," he said.