SYDNEY — Furious Alabama residents have hit out at Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and demanded he issue an apology for his "redneck" comment.

US media organisations, including the New York Times and FOX News, picked up Rudd's remarks, which followed US comedian Robin Williams joking "Australians are basically English rednecks".

Alabama newspaper, the Birmingham News, ran an "Australia vs Alabama" headline on the most prominent section of its website and asked readers to comment.

They did not hold back, with one accusing Rudd of making a "racial epithet" while another wrote "if it weren't for some Alabamians fighting in the war, the Australians would be speaking Japanese".

"I'm going to go to the zoo and punch a kangaroo in protest," another wrote on the Birmingham News site.

"I spent a month in Australia.

"Ninety-five per cent of it is a desert wasteland and looks like a Mad Max dump. There is a good reason Britain sent its criminals there."

The furor began earlier in the week when Williams, who just returned from a two week trip to Australia, appeared on Dave Letterman's US TV talkshow and joked that Australians are basically English rednecks.

Rudd, during an interview on Eddie Maguire's Triple M radio show, responded by saying: "First of all, I think Robin Williams should go and spend a bit of time in Alabama before he frames comments about anyone being particularly redneck".

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