Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has strongly defended his ambassador to the US after Donald Trump said he did not like the diplomat during a meeting at the White House, BBC reported.

On Monday, Trump was asked about Kevin Rudd, a former prime minister turned ambassador to the US, who wrote several now-deleted tweets critical of the US president years before his Washington posting.

Rudd owned up to the tweets, prompting the US leader to say "I don't like you either" and causing the room to erupt in laughter.

The high-stakes meeting with Trump was Albanese's first, and the prime minister later dismissed the comments as "banter" amid calls to sack Rudd, according to BBC.