Helen Clark and Kevin Rudd in 2008. Credit:Glen McCurtayne Mr Key also revealed he had spoken to Mr Turnbull about the race and was quizzed about whether he'd asked him not to support Mr Rudd. "I've had a couple of chats with him about it," Mr Key told breakfast television in New Zealand, but was coy about details. "All I'd say is if any person wants to be in the race, be in the race … You've got to get either your host country, preferably, or a country, to nominate you. At the moment, he [Mr Rudd] doesn't have a country nominating him. "I still think anyway, if it's a drag race between Kevin Rudd and Helen Clark, New Zealanders - and I reckon a hell of a lot of Australians - know who the best candidate is, and it's not Kevin Rudd."

Helen Clark, New Zealand's then-prime minister, right, looks on as Kevin Rudd, Australia's then-prime minister, speaks during a joint news conference in Auckland, New Zealand in 2008. Credit:Bloomberg Mr Key has given orders for New Zealand's diplomats overseas to back Ms Clark's campaign, run with the online hashtag #Helen4SG and promoted from a dedicated website hosted by the country's Ministry for Foreign Affairs and Trade. Mr Key also wrote Ms Clark a glowing reference as "the best candidate for this job" to formally launch her campaign in April. Illustration: Ron Tandberg He made several television appearances on Monday to bolster support after discouraging results of a straw poll in the Security Council last week suggested Ms Clark's bid for the job might be stalling.

Meanwhile, Mr Turnbull, fending off complaints about Mr Rudd from conservative Coalition MPs and ministers, is yet to commit to backing his erstwhile Labor rival. Illustration: Matt Golding It has been suggested the government might strike a compromise by nominating Mr Rudd but not offering official support from Australia's diplomats, instead leaving it only to Mr Rudd to lobby for himself. Mr Rudd has already won public supporters, including former Canadian foreign minister John Baird, ex-Liberal leader Brendan Nelson and East Timor independence hero, Jose-Ramos Horta. But some expressed surprise at prospect of the government choosing to nominate Mr Rudd but not offering diplomatic backing.

"No one is asking Turnbull to go out with the pom-poms but any Australian candidate for any international position over the decades has had the support of the Australian diplomatic network to draw on," said one close observer. New Zealand has a temporary seat on the 15-member Security Council, but it is the five veto-wielding permanent members in Britain, China, France, Russia and the US that will largely decide the replacement for present Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon before his term finishes in December. Mr Key said he had spoken to Ms Clark after the straw poll and the two had worked on a "game plan" for tactics in the race. Mr Rudd praised Ms Clark in April when she entered the UN race.

Loading Mr Rudd has also said he supported Ms Clark when she ran in 2009 to be head of the UN development program. A year before, when the two were still prime ministers, a mischievous official briefing note prepared by Australian diplomats ahead of Mr Rudd's visit to New Zealand described Ms Clark as a left-wing control freak - which she later dismissed as a "hoot".