Prime Minister John Key says Finnish President Sauli Niinisto is ''extremely relaxed'' about Gerry Brownlee's slating of his country.



Key sought out Niinisto in Seoul last night to ''offer some context'' around Brownlee's remarks in Parliament last week. But he says he did not formally apologise.



Brownlee was forced to express regret this morning, but denied he had made a deliberate attack on the European nation.

He sparked outrage by saying Finland had worse unemployment than New Zealand, could hardly feed the people who live there, had a terrible homicide rate and "hardly educates" its people.



Key and Niinisto are in South Korea to attend the Nuclear Security Summit, and met up at a working dinner last night.



''I had a brief discussion,'' Key said. ''I just put some context around the comments, that they were made in a robust political debate, and he ...took it in the spirit that it was intended.



''I wouldn't really say it was an apology per se...I'm not sure I'd describe it as a formal apology, more some context around the comments that were made...my minister had simply pointed out that there were a number of areas where New Zealand arguably had better statistics.''



Commenting on his discussion with Key, Niinisto noted that Finland was not the only country where unguarded comments were made.



"We decided to conclude the matter with an amusing tale that when I served as Finance Minister in Finland, many people wanted the New Zealand model. This time round, people in New Zealand looked to the Finnish model. Perhaps together they might form a perfect model," Ninisto said.



Key said Niinisto did not regard the remarks as ''a diplomatic incident'' and was ''very understanding of the robustness of our parliament.''



He added: ''He said if they put the combination of New Zealand and Finland together it would be paradise.''



Key defended Brownlee's sense of humour.



''Everybody who knows Gerry knows he's got a great sense of humour and he give rollicking speeches in the House from time to time...I'm not going to crtique it, it's occurred and the Finnish president has seen it in the spirit of which it was intended.''



And he laughed off a Finnish comedian's jibes about Brownlee's weight. ''Well, I think Gerry has never made any secret that he's a large unit.''



He won't be sending him off to Finland to learn more about the country, as some offended ex-pats have suggested.

''I'm not planning to. He's got a lot to do in transport and Christchurch at the moment.''

ALL A GOOD LAUGH

Brownlee said this morning he carried "a little bit of Finland" with him always - in the form of a Nokia cellphone.

Brownlee said his speech was meant to be humorous and not an attack on the country.

"I'm sure that New Zealanders have been on the butt of all sorts of jokes at various times and not taken offence at such a thing."



And Brownlee said he wasn't concerned about a Finnish television programme poking fun at New Zealand in light of his comments.



"It's great that they're talking about us - I've had so many personal attacks launched on me over my time that it's not likely to cause me any bother."



A clip of the programme, entitled Gerry Brownlee: Greetings from Finland, has been posted online.

In it, the host says that due to the time difference he is not sure "if [Brownlee is] eating your third breakfast or your fifth dinner".



"But looking at the pictures we've seen here in Finland; you're eating something."



Presenter Tuomas Enbuske said people went to Finland to learn from the world-class education system, while people came to New Zealand to "eat kiwifruit".



"We have the Angry birds game, you have sheep."



Labour deputy leader Grant Robertson said Brownlee should offer a whole-hearted apology.



His comments were an embarrassment for New Zealand, especially now Finnish television had got hold of the issue.



"What we were trying to say is that when you look at what's happened in Finland it's a country that took its own economic problems and said we're going to come up with ways of solving these, we're going to have an economic plan, that's what's missing at the moment from the National Party."



The Finnish Embassy in Canberra this week called the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) seeking an explanation for Brownlee's comments.



An MFAT spokeswoman confirmed the conversation had taken place but would not say what had been said.



Finland's deputy head of mission Juha Parikka said it had been a "very friendly" talk and the New Zealanders had promised to look into the matter further.



The story was "flaming" in Finnish media and a recent poll found 84 per cent of people there believed Brownlee should apologise.



Finnish officials were yet to speak directly with Brownlee but wanted him to visit the Nordic country and "see what the reality is up there".

The video clip (contains explicit language):