KEVIN RUDD has admitted his grand global plans are placing pressures on the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, which cut spending and staff in the leadup to the Prime Minister's announcements on nuclear disarmament and Asian co-operation.

But he says the remaining workforce will be able to cope and the Government has no plans to grant extra funding.

The department is expected to cut 25 foreign positions by the end of this year in response to a demand from the Rudd Government to find $57 million of savings over the next four years, including $21 million in 2008-09.

A review of the department's budget and priorities, being undertaken with the Department of Finance, is expected to be completed this year. But the cuts have come as Mr Rudd announced a commission on nuclear disarmament and a push for a new forum of Asia-Pacific nations.

Richard Woolcott, a former secretary of the department who was appointed by Mr Rudd as an envoy to promote the Asia-Pacific proposal, told ABC Radio on the weekend that funding for diplomatic work in the past decade "has been allowed to run down to a dangerously low level".

Russell Trood, a Liberal senator and former international relations academic, said Australia's foreign policy infrastructure was "being slowly emasculated and our diplomatic presence abroad badly degraded".

Mr Rudd, a former diplomat, said yesterday he was "mindful" of the criticisms but the cuts were far less than those imposed when the Howard government took office.

Source: Sydney Morning Herald