THE newly re-elected Obama administration has signalled it is unhappy with the Gillard government's cuts to Australia's defence spending and will take it up at a top-level meeting next week.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was "very excited" to be meeting Julia Gillard next week in Perth, her top Asia official, Kurt Campbell, told The Saturday Age. It is probably Mrs Clinton's last visit to Australia in her current post.

While Dr Campbell said he was "very pleased with the trajectory" of the alliance, he said the cuts to Australian defence spending were a matter of concern, which the US would raise at the annual ministerial meeting between the two nations, Ausmin.

In the May budget, the government cut Australia's defence spending as a share of GDP to its smallest level since 1938.