by chief political correspondent Emma Griffiths 

Updated February 14, 2012 14:30:38

Video: Gillard defends Four Corners interview (ABC News)

Related Story: Gillard quizzed on when she knew of leadership coup

Prime Minister Julia Gillard has revealed that she had discussions, either with her staff or Labor factional figures, about mounting a leadership challenge in the days before Kevin Rudd was ousted.

Ms Gillard insists she made the decision to challenge on the day of the coup, but her statement raises further questions about her involvement in the plot to overthrow Mr Rudd.

It follows last night's Four Corners program that alleged Ms Gillard and her key factional supporters were preparing to mount a leadership challenge weeks before it happened.

But the Prime Minister would not identify who she spoke to in the days before the change.

"I was canvassed in the short days before, very close in to me making that decision," she said.

"When people had sought to raise the matter with me earlier I had declined to have the conversation with them.

"No amount of speculation here or media interest will change that simple fact that I made up my mind on the day that I asked Kevin Rudd for a ballot."

It follows an earlier admission from Ms Gillard that she may have known that senior staff in her office were preparing a victory speech before the day of the 2010 leadership coup.

Four Corners  revealed that staff in Ms Gillard's office had started writing the first speech she delivered as Prime Minister at least two weeks before she took power.

In an interview for the program, Ms Gillard avoided answering questions about whether she was aware the speech was being prepared.

Again this morning she side-stepped questions about when she knew about the speech.

"This was a tense few days for me and the Government, so I can't specifically say to you when I came to know about the speech," she told Sabra Lane on AM.

"It could've been on the Wednesday night, it could've been before."

Ms Gillard says the main point is she did not commission the work.

"I didn't direct the speech and the decision I made about seeking the Labor leadership was made on the day that I walked into Kevin Rudd's office and discussed with him having a ballot for the leadership," she said.

Video: Watch excerpts from the Four Corners interview (ABC News)

Polling

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has pointed to the leadership instability as damaging to workers.

"This is a Prime Minister who is focused on saving her job, not on saving the jobs of the Australian people," he said.

When asked whether his staff would write a speech without his knowledge, he said he wrote his own.

"I have very good staff and they do a lot of research for me, but I write the speech."

Four Corners also cited internal Labor Party polling taken in the week before the challenge as proof the campaign was building far earlier.

The polling compared Ms Gillard with Mr Rudd, saying she was more popular with voters, and pointed to negative focus group reactions to the then-leader.

Again the Prime Minister appeared to skirt the issue, saying she did not have "specific recall of pages of party polling at the time".

But a partial transcript of the interview, released by the Prime Minister's office to ABC News Online, shows responses from Ms Gillard that were not broadcast by Four Corners.

On the issue of internal polling she said: "I take it the implication from your question is that some part of the decision I made was motivated by polling, if that is the implication of your question that's wholly untrue."

Momentum

Four Corners also asserted that the US State Department knew a leadership change was gaining momentum before some Labor MPs were aware of it.

It said that about two weeks before the coup, ambassador Kim Beazley was called in to explain to US secretary of state Hillary Clinton what was happening in relation to change in the prime minister's office.

US Embassy cables released through Wikileaks have shown that the State Department had been receiving leaked information on internal ALP politics for months.

ALP right-wing powerbroker Graham Richardson told the program he knew "a week or so" before the change in leadership that a challenge was going to be mounted.

Mr Rudd declined to be interviewed for the Four Corners program, and when the idea of returning to the PM's office was put to him he would not say if the idea appealed.

"Well, that's a matter for history," Mr Rudd said.

"I'm a very, very happy little vegemite."

Video: Watch Julia Gillard's 2010 victory speech (ABC News)

The program had been widely anticipated in political circles because of recent fevered speculation that Mr Rudd was poised to launch a comeback.

In more bad news for Ms Gillard, today's Newspoll shows she has lost ground to Mr Abbott in the preferred prime minister stakes.

Mr Abbott's support rose three points to 40 per cent while Ms Gillard's slipped the same amount to 37 per cent in the poll, published by The Australian newspaper.

The Coalition's primary vote is up one point to 46 per cent, while Labor's is up two points to 32.

The Coalition still leads Labor 55 to 45 on a two-party preferred basis.

This morning Labor frontbencher Penny Wong reiterated her support for Ms Gillard.

"The Prime Minister is the right person to lead the country and the party, and the reason is she's absolutely focused on doing what she believes is right for working Australians and the country," she said.

But the program has prompted more criticism from the Opposition that the Government is divided and dysfunctional.

Coalition frontbencher Christopher Pyne has accused the Prime Minister of showing a lack of judgment in even granting the interview.

"The most senior people on the program were [Labor backbencher] Janelle Saffin and a retired member Con Sciacca - and the Prime Minister," he said.

"Quite frankly the Prime Minister made a bad judgment call by going on the Four Corners program."

Ms Gillard told AM she agreed to go on the program because it was described to her as focusing on the Government's progress and outlook.

"My job is to answer questions and to explain what the Government's doing," she said.

"I'm not someone who runs away from questions, and so I did agree to the Four Corners interview."

Gillard admits leadership talks days before coup - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)