Kevin Rudd called Ban Ki-moon 'Spanky Banky', reveals book

Melbourne, Oct 18 (ANI): Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd and his office privately referred to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon as 'Spanky Banky', a new book has revealed.

ABC TV's Barrie Cassidy has written in his new book 'Party Thieves,' that Rudd also demanded the man he replaced as Labour leader, Kim Beazley, reports News.com.au.

"It was this second meeting-clearly designed to illicit a job that had some journalists more than mildly amused, namely those privy to a private encounter in Japan two years earlier," wrote Cassidy.

Recounting the tale, Cassidy said: "In the office, we call him Spanky Banky!' Mr Rudd then said."

"Spanky Banky? That would be the secretary general of the United Nations, the first person that Rudd formally approached about a job when he lost the one he had," wrote Cassidy.

"It was yet another of those juvenile and totally inappropriate remarks that so often left those around him wondering what he'd done with all that diplomatic training," he wrote. (ANI)