Australia called for an independent investigation into the global response to the coronavirus pandemic, including the World Health Organisation's handling of the crisis.

Foreign Minister Marise Payne said the country would “insist” on a review that would probe, in part, China's early response to the outbreak in Wuhan, the city where Covid-19 emerged late last year.

“We need to know the sorts of details that an independent review would identify for us about the genesis of the virus, about the approaches to dealing with it [and] addressing the openness with which information was shared,” she told public broadcaster ABC.