Obama shows Australia PM high school, D.C.

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama and Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard couldn't say enough about the close friendship between their two countries during Gillard's first White House visit yesterday. But on one issue there was no common ground: Vegemite.

Obama winced at the mere mention of the Australian food paste when a student asked about it during a classroom visit the two leaders conducted. "It's horrible!" the president declared.

Gillard displayed some diplomacy befitting a world leader on her first Washington tour, calling the issue "a little bit of a division between the president and I. I love Vegemite."

Obama and Gillard had begun with a more traditional approach. They held a private meeting and then a relatively news-free appearance before reporters in the Oval Office, proclaiming cooperation on the war in Afghanistan, trade and security. But then the president took the prime minister back to school.

The two took a quick road trip to Wakefield High School in Arlington, Va., to mix it up with an 11th grade history class. Obama had used the school as the site of a national address on education, and Gillard is Australia's former education minister and was interested in taking a look at U.S. education methods.

Plus, the venture had a political purpose: Keeping Obama on his monthlong message of education even as world events tug away at his time.

What followed were some amusing, and at times instructive, exchanges among Obama, Gillard and the 20 or so history students they observed.

Gillard administered what she called a "pop quiz" to the students with questions ranging from the population of Australia - one student pretty much nailed it at 21 million - to the rules for "Australian rules football."

"It's hard to understand," was one student's observation about the sport.

That led Obama to divulge that Gillard had brought him an Australian football and had even kicked it around the Oval Office, and "almost broke a bust of Lincoln." Turned out the president was just kidding about that one.

When Obama and Gillard invited questions for the prime minister, a hand shot up.

"My family and I have been wondering this for a little while. What is Vegemite?" a student earnestly inquired, provoking the leaders' disagreement on that high-stakes issue.