The White House took exception today to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s assertion that the U.S. “overstepped its national borders in every way.”

But, as for Australian Prime Minister John Howard’s comments about Sen. Barack Obama - that his call for a troop withdrawal in Iraq should cause terrorists to root for Obama’s election as president - the White House simply says the prime minister speaks for himself.

Just your basic Monday morning in Washington.

With the White House sitting square in the middle of provocative comments flying from far corners of the world, the Bush administration was issuing its own provocative comments over the weekend in Iraq, with U.S. military authorities asserting that Iran is supplying deadly weapons being deployed against U.S. troops there.

But Putin’s comments at an international security forum in Munich over the weekend drew plenty of attention, the Chicago Tribune reports.

The Russian president claimed that the U.S. has undermined security in the world and prompted other nations to pursue new weaponry with its “almost uncontained use of military force.” Putin said that American “unilateral, illegitimate actions have not solved a single problem. They have become a hotbed of further conflicts.”

White House press secretary Tony Snow replied today:

“We certainly disagree with the characterization of the United States… acting unilaterally… In fact, the United States has been working in every way, including with Russia, to work in a multilateral fashion…”

He pointed to the six-party talks among the U.S., Japan, China, Russia, South Korea and North Korea aimed at convincing the latter to suspend its nuclear weapons program. Diplomats suggested over the weekend that they could be on the verge of a long-sought agreement.

“If you take a look at the ongoing cooperation between the United States and Russia, it continues,” Snow said. “The president has regular and quite frank conversations with President Putin.”

But George W. Bush has not spoken with Prime Minister Howard of Australia since January 9, the White House maintains - a thinly-veiled attempt to dispute claims that Bush put his friend from Sydney up to his recent criticism of Obama.

Obama, who declared his candidacy for the Democratic nomination over the weekend, has called for a cap on U.S. troops deployed in Iraq and also proposes to withdraw all combat troops by March 2008.

The Australian prime minister, a staunch ally of the U.S. in the Iraq war, claimed that any withdrawal of forces would destablize Iraq.

“Yes, I think he’s wrong,” Howard said. “I mean, he’s a long way from being president of the United States. I think he’s wrong, I think that would just encourage those who wanted completely to destabilize and destroy Iraq and create chaos and a victory for the terrorists to hang on and hope for an Obama victory.”

“I mean, if I we’re running al-Qaeda in Iraq,” Howard added, “I would put a circle around March 2008 and pray as many times as possible for a victory not only for Obama, but also for the Democrats.”

The White House downplayed the remarks, but didn’t contradict them.

“John Howard has free speech, and he’s free to say what he does,” said the White House’s Snow, asked today about the prime minister’s remarks about Obama. “The prime minister has spoken his mind, and it is what it is.”

Howard denied political motive in his comments about Obama, maintaining that Obama’s plan to withdraw troops from Iraq is a matter of Australian interest - it would amount to a defeat, he said, for Australia’s most important military ally, the U.S.

Howard’s own political rival, Labor leader Kevin Rudd, has complained that Howard, who is seeking a fifth term, could be harming Australia’s relations with a potential Democratic president of the U.S.

“I’m doing nothing of the kind. I don’t retract anything I said,” Howard told Parliament in Canberra today. “I hold the strongest possible view that it is contrary to the security interests of this country for America to be defeated in Iraq… Let me make it pefectly clear - if I hear a policy being advocated that is contrary to Australia’s security interests, I will criticize it.”

As for the Bush administration’s own assertions over the weekend that the Iranian government is funneling lethal weapons into Iraq, Snow insisted:

“I don’t think there is a change in tone on our part. This isn’t new.”

The administration is confident that the military assessment of Iran’s involvement is accurate, he added, and the administration also believes that the Iranian government has condoned the shipment of weaponry into Iraq.

“If the president of Iran wants to put a stop to it, we wish him luck and hope he’ll stop it soon,” Snow said.