The Federal Government is refusing to comment on revelations that Foreign Affairs Minister Kevin Rudd suggested force may be needed if China could not be successfully integrated into the international community.

According to a US diplomatic cable released by the WikiLeaks website, Mr Rudd made the comments during a conversation with US secretary of state Hillary Clinton in March last year, while he was still prime minister.

The document is the first to be released by WikiLeaks with a significant mention of Australia.

According to the confidential cable, Ms Clinton asked for Mr Rudd's advice on dealing with the growing power of China, asking him: "How do you deal toughly with your banker?"

He responded by saying he was a "brutal realist on China".

He said China should be integrated into the international community but that countries should be prepared to "deploy force if everything goes wrong".

Mr Rudd told Ms Clinton that Australia's intelligence community keeps a close eye on China's military modernisation.

He said the focus on naval capability in the Defence White Paper, released just weeks after their meeting, was a response to China's growing ability to project force.

The leaked document also says Mr Rudd suggested to Chinese leaders that they consider some sort of autonomy deal with the Dalai Lama.

The cable says Mr Rudd believed Chinese leaders were "paranoid" about Tibet and "sub-rational and deeply emotional" about Taiwan.

A spokeswoman for Mr Rudd says the Government will not be commenting on the detail of leaked US diplomatic cables.

Federal independent MP Andrew Wilkie has questioned whether Mr Rudd was serious about using force against China.

"I'm wondering the degree to which Kevin Rudd was fair dinkum about that," he said.

"The prospect of using force against China or supporting the US using force against China just because it might be sitting slightly outside the international community from time to time - I think that is just an inconceivable notion.

"I suspect there was some posturing on Kevin Rudd's place at that time."

Coalition foreign affairs spokeswoman Julie Bishop says Prime Minister Julia Gillard should make it clear whether she holds the same attitudes expressed by Mr Rudd.

"I find it troubling that Mr Rudd as prime minister advised the United States it should consider the use of force if other measures fail to counter China's growing influence," she said.

"I don't believe that that's an appropriate piece of advice for Mr Rudd to give the United States and I call on Julia Gillard to detail whether this remains the view of the Labor Government."

Ms Bishop says the cable suggests Mr Rudd offered to send Australian troops to Pakistan if the country requested help to combat threats from Afghanistan.

"This appears to contradict the Government's claim that Australia lacks the capability to provide additional troops to Afghanistan," she said.

"Mr Rudd appears to have [said] that Australian troops would be deployed to Pakistan if international forces were invited into the country to assist with counter-insurgency.

"[Ms Gillard] must explain whether that commitment stands, and under what circumstances Australian troops would be deployed."

The current WikiLeaks cable dump is one of a number of publications of secret US files by the website this year, after it published tens of thousands of US military files from the Afghanistan and Iraq conflicts.