While those of us here in the U.S. slept, President Bush and South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun quarreled in front of reporters in Australia, but the White House is saying that there was no quarrel.

"There was clearly something lost in translation," said Gordon Johndroe, National Security Council spokesman.

Mr. Bush is at an economic summit in Sydney, and about 1:30 a.m. this morning (3:30 p.m. Sydney time), he and Mr. Roh emerged from a meeting to speak briefly to reporters.

Mr. Bush spoke about the relationship between the two countries, a little bit about Iraq, but mostly about North Korea, repeating his condition that they must give up their nuclear weapons program if peace is to be declared in the region.

The Korean War ended in 1953 with an armistice and not a peace treaty.

Then Mr. Roh spoke, and ended his comments with a question that sparked this exchange:

PRESIDENT ROH: I think I might be wrong -- I think I did not hear President Bush mention the -- a declaration to end the Korean War just now. Did you say so, President Bush?

PRESIDENT BUSH: I said it's up to [North Korean Dictator] Kim Jong-il as to whether or not we're able to sign a peace treaty to end the Korean War. He's got to get rid of his weapons in a verifiable fashion. And we're making progress toward that goal. It's up to him.

PRESIDENT ROH: I believe that they are the same thing, Mr. President. If you could be a little bit clearer in your message, I think --

PRESIDENT BUSH: I can't make it any more clear, Mr. President. We look forward to the day when we can end the Korean War. That will end -- will happen when Kim Jong-il verifiably gets rid of his weapons programs and his weapons. Thank you, sir.

Reporters in Sydney said that Mr. Bush said, "Thank you, sir," three times at the end of the exchange, instead of one as noted in the transcript.

Financial Times reporter Andrew Ward witnessed the exchange and pointed out in a pool report distributed to reporters that Mr. Roh came to power in 2002 on promises to distance South Korea from the U.S. Mr. Ward said that now that Mr. Roh is leaving office, he is trying to better position his left-leaning party for an electoral victory over their conservative, more U.S.-friendly opposition.

But White House officials denied several times that there was any disagreement or tension between the two leaders, blaming the dustup on the translator.

"It was perhaps a translation error," said Deputy National Security Advisor Jim Jeffrey. "There was no tension."

"The president was not tense," said White House press secretary Dana Perino.

A reporter asked if Mr. Roh was trying to extract something from Mr. Bush that Mr. Bush did not want to give him.

"You need to ask President Roh that," Mr. Jeffrey told the American press.

Reporters asked if the White House felt this was a political move by Mr. Roh, playing to a South Korean audience.

"That's a speculative question," Mr. Jeffrey said.

Mrs. Perino said: "There might be just a little bit of over-interpretation of what happened in there. I can tell you, they had a very warm meeting."

"There was no tension in the meeting," she said again. "There was no tension after the meeting amongst staff or amongst the leaders. And I think that everyone is trying to make a little bit too much of it."

-- Jon Ward, White House correspondent, The Washington Times