France and the U.K. are of the opinion that the world should focus on the fight against COVID-19 instead of trying to apportion blame.

The two nations stance is in response to an attempt by Australia to have an international probe on the spread of the pandemic, calls that have also been backed by the U.S. President Donald Trump.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom has repeatedly said the United Nations will evaluate its handling of the pandemic after it ends and draw appropriate lessons, as it does all emergencies.

French President Emmanuel Macron in a telephone conversation with Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison that the world should focus on “cohesion” in the fight against COVID-19.

"He says he agrees that there have been some issues at the start, but that the urgency is for cohesion, that it is no time to talk about this, while reaffirming the need for transparency for all players, not only the WHO," Reuters quotes an Elysee official.

The U.K also said it's current focus was on the battle against the disease which has killed close to 180,000 people globally.

A spokesman for Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the country would look at the lessons learned from the crisis once it is dealt with.

In Berlin, the government confirmed that Merkel had spoken with Morrison on Tuesday. Last Friday, her spokesman said: "The coronavirus appeared first in China. China has suffered a lot from the virus and did a lot to fight against spreading."

China's embassy in Canberra said in a statement late on Tuesday that Australian lawmakers were only amplifying calls by President Trump, and "certain Australian politicians are keen to parrot what those Americans have asserted and simply follow them in staging political attacks on China."