New York (PTI): Alaska Governor Sarah Palin has fired back at the former aides of John McCain, calling them "jerks" for circulating unflattering stories about her since the Republican ticket lost its bid for the White House Tuesday.

The stories, attributed to unnamed sources within the McCain campaign, include claims that Palin, who was the running mate of the Republican Senator, did not know Africa was a continent instead of a country, or which countries are part of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), despite touting her familiarity with neighbouring Canada.

Palin asserted that the stories were not true and speculated that they may have originated with campaign staffers who helped her prepare for her debate with Democratic Vice President-elect Joe Biden.

"Those were taken out of context and that's cruel," Palin, who has returned to Alaska, told CNN. "It's mean-spirited. It's immature. It's unprofessional and those guys are jerks if they came away with it, taking things out of context, and then tried to spread something on national news."

The network quoted one source involved in preparing Palin for interviews and the vice-presidential debate as saying "she had not paid attention to a single policy debate that's gone on in this country for 10 years."

Palin told CNN that she remembers having conversations about NAFTA and Africa during her preparations, but that the stories about her "are not true." She said it was "cowardly" for staffers to make claims about her anonymously.

"It's not fair and it's not right," she said.

Two McCain sources were quoted as saying that they were furious about Palin's supposed call on Saturday with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, which turned out to be a prank by two radio DJs.