Nicola Sturgeon has impressed US audiences on Jon Stewart's Daily Show demonstrating her comedic prowess as she visits New York and Washington.

The Scottish First Minister and SNP leader had host Stewart in stitches as she delivered a gag about the Iraq war and was compared by the late night comedy show host to Saddam Hussein.

Sturgeon joked she had ordered an inquiry into why her party lost three seats in its recent general elections landslide north of the border.

"You think you're Saddam Hussein – you get 99%?" Stewart asked.

"I think this is progress because you just heard there Jon, presumably on behalf of the United States, asking to invade an oil producing country – it doesn't usually work that way."
- Nicola Surgeon

Later, Sturgeon made a return to Iraq based humour when Jon Stewart asked her how much oil Scotland produced and then suggested a possible invasion.

"I think this is progress because you just heard there Jon, presumably on behalf of the United States, asking to invade an oil producing country – it doesn't usually work that way," she said.

At the outset of her interview with the popular talkshow host, Sturgeon complained about erroneously being billed on the Daily Show's website as a comedian saying: "You billed me on your website as a comedian, so you've raised all these expectations that I'm going to be funny. And I'm a politician, and as you know, politicians are rarely very funny."

In the end, Stewart conceded she was, in fact, a comedian.

Later today Ms Sturgeon will host a reception to kick off Glasgow School of Art's fundraising appeal in the US before heading to Washington.

There she will address an audience at the World Bank, attend a meeting at the International Monetary Fund, visit the US Holocaust Museum and make a speech to the Council on Foreign Relations, Press Association reported.

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Oil