Martin O'Neill today reacted furiously to 'staggering' comments from Rafa Benitez as the row over Liverpool's bid for Gareth Barry rumbled on.

Speaking to this morning's Mirror, Benitez suggested there had been an ongoing dialogue with his Villa Park counterpart - a suggestion which has been flatly denied by O'Neill.

The Villa boss was angry as news of Liverpool's interest was made public last week but Benitez claims the Anfield outfit have done nothing wrong.

O'Neill told www.avfc.co.uk: "I'm absolutely astonished at this story 'Rafa Exposes O'Neill' I've never denied speaking to Rafa Benitez so how can you be exposed for something you haven't denied?

"I think Rafa is being very clever here. He gives the impression that there's been constant dialogue. That's simply and utterly untrue.

"He made a phone call to me; I did not initiate the phone call. He asked about Gareth Barry and I said: 'Well he's got a testimonial and two years left to run and he's our best player. So what would the reaction be?'

"I said that I would speak to our owner - obviously because he has a big, big say in the proceedings - and I assumed he would have the same answer as myself, that Gareth wasn't for sale.

"So I'm astonished to read this. The next conversation I had with Rafa Benitez was last Friday morning when Liverpool had put in a faxed offer to us which we received on Thursday afternoon.

"There was hardly time to speak to the chairman or to react to things before it was in the Liverpool Echo. The only reason Rafa Benitez was phoning me was to cover himself! It was as simple as that."

O'Neill added: "I see there's a reference in the paper this morning, and this is his quote: 'I was surprised by part of his comments I had a private conversation with him 20 days ago. He knew everything about my idea and I knew about his idea.'

"What idea did I have? I've got absolutely no idea! I have no idea what he's talking about. It's absolutely crazy.

"It suggests this is a conversation that I wanted to keep going, to keep on the boiling pot. Absolutely not. It's a complete nonsense.

"This is not something I initiated and I certainly was not on the phone to him to ask him about his players either, which I think is something he's trying to refer to.

"That is not true. He mentioned players himself but I might not be interested in any of his players."