The Morrison government said it was "ready to assist and co-operate" with the probe in response to Mr Trump's call, which the President initiated in the first week of September and which was predominantly about the Russian hacking. US special counsel Robert Mueller concluded in March there was "sweeping and systemic" interference by the Russian government in the 2016 presidential campaign, noting "a foreign government" helped the FBI with its investigation. Prime Minister Scott Morrison and US President Donald Trump at the White House. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen Mr Mueller did not name the Australian government but Mr Trump said in May he wanted Australia to be part of the new probe, while the President's allies claimed "spies" had trapped Mr Papadopoulos. US Attorney-General William Barr has named federal prosecutor John Durham to lead the probe and has asked foreign governments to help the inquiry, but Democrats have dismissed the effort as a partisan ploy to discredit the Mueller findings.

Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese called on Mr Morrison to reveal his commitments to Mr Trump, given the US was Australia's most important ally. "The Prime Minister needs to explain to the Australian people exactly what happened here, exactly what his role has been, what took place in terms of this phone call, so that it is made clear that the Australian Prime Minister is not involved in what is essentially a domestic issue in the United States," Mr Albanese said. Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese says the PM "needs to actually give some straight answers". Credit:Kate Geraghty "What Scott Morrison can't do here is do what he's had a tendency to do in recent times, which is to dismiss questions which are legitimate from the media as just gossip or as just being in the bubble. "He needs to actually give some straight answers to what are very clear questions.

Loading "Scott Morrison needs to explain what happened, who said what to whom, whether any undertakings were made." The Prime Minister's office declined to say on Tuesday whether the Australian government had provided any information to the Mueller investigation, would provide the same information to the Durham inquiry and would release any of the information it provided. Mr Downer, then the Australian high commissioner to the United Kingdom, met Mr Papadopoulos on May 10, 2016, and later told officials the Trump aide said Russians had "dirt" on Mrs Clinton. WikiLeaks began releasing leaked emails from Clinton campaign headquarters on July 22 and Australian officials notified the FBI of the Papadopoulos conversation within a week. The FBI launched its investigation on July 31.

A conversation Alexander Downer had with Trump aide George Papadopoulos was passed on to the FBI. Credit:AAP Mr Downer said he had nothing to add to what had already emerged. "I had a conversation with this guy, I passed on the conversation or that one element of the conversation to the Americans and there's just nothing more to it," he said on ABC Radio National on Tuesday morning. Mr Downer said he had no idea what Mr Morrison and Mr Trump had discussed in their phone call. Mr Trump's interactions with foreign leaders are coming under intense scrutiny following the release of a transcript that showed him pressuring the Ukrainian President to investigate potential 2020 Democratic rival Joe Biden.

Loading The Democrats have launched an impeachment inquiry into Mr Trump, a move polls show is increasingly popular with the American public. Mr Trump announced in May that he had asked his Attorney-General Mr Barr to investigate Australia's role in sparking the 2016 FBI investigation into his campaign's Russia connections. "He can look and I hope he looks at the UK and I hope he looks at Australia and I hope he looks at Ukraine," Mr Trump said at the time. "I hope he looks at everything, because there was a hoax that was perpetrated on our country."

Australia's ambassador to Washington, Joe Hockey, wrote to Barr in May to offer Australia's help in the investigation. "I refer to President Trump's announcement on 24 May that you will investigate the origins of the Federal Bureau of Investigations probe into Russian links to the 2016 elections," Mr Hockey wrote in the letter, which was made public on Tuesday. "The Australian Government will use its best endeavours to support your efforts in this matter." A Justice Department spokesperson confirmed that Mr Barr had asked Mr Trump to raise the issue with foreign leaders.