Gore, who lost narrowly to President George W. Bush in the 2000 presidential race, was caught in the crossfire between rival Aussie politicians disputing his assertions on climate change in the film.

"There are three places I do not go for advice on climate change," fumed Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane, dismissing the film in which Gore singles out Australia as trailing the rest of the world on climate change.

"One of them is to unsuccessful candidates for the US presidency who cannot even convince their own people that they are right. The second place is the movie," he said, adding that the third was the Australian opposition.

Gore had Sunday urged Prime Minister John Howard to lead Australia into the battle against climate change.

In the film, Gore criticised Australia and the United States as the only countries not to sign the Kyoto protocol on cutting greenhouse gas emissions blamed for global warming.

Howard retorted that he did not take policy advice from films and said he would not meet Gore.

An opposition Labor Party environment spokesman, Anthony Albanese, came to Gore's defence on Monday, saying Macfarlane's had been arrogant and naive in branding the film "just entertainment."

The film documented the scientific consensus that climate change had led to a significant increase in both the duration and intensity of hurricanes, and a drop in rainfall in agricultural areas, Albanese said.

"The minister should explain what was entertaining about Hurricane Katrina and other extreme weather events," he stated.

Several top Austarlian scientists also appeared to defend Gore's contentions.

"The movie is based on sound science and as such reflects the mainstream view expressed in the international peer review literature," said Graeme Pearman, senior research fellow at Monash University.

"Overwhelmingly the presentation was sound and did not drift into sensationalising what is a serious global issue," he said, echoing the views of several other domestic scholars.

Environmental group Greenpeace meanwhile accused Howard of being too "ashamed" to watch the film.

"He's been spoiling Kyoto on behalf of the Bush administration and pushing and pimping coal exports wherever he can," Greenpeace official Danny Kennedy said.

"That's why he can't go. He's too ashamed to expose his real record."