It is understood that Mr Xenophon will now seek a personal apology from Ms Gillard, having reached a confidential settlement with the publisher, Random House.

A retraction and apology will be published as a paid advertisement in the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age on Tuesday.

It says that an allegation on page 320 of the first edition of Ms Gillard's autobiography, My Story, incorrectly states Mr Xenophon was "infamously excluded from university for a period as punishment for stuffing a ballot box full of voting papers he had somehow procured".

It is understood that Mr Xenophon was not excluded from university and not involved in the ballot rigging incident at Adelaide University in the 1970s. Mr Xenophon later revealed details of the incident in the student newspaper when he was its editor.

"I just wish Julia checked her facts on this," Mr Xenophon said on Monday night. "It would have saved a lot of grief all round."

"I wish that the defamatory material was never published in the first place. At least the apology and retraction will go some way to repairing the damage done. The whole incident was personally quite painful."

Mr Xenophon added that "sadly, the agro and negative tone of student politics back then seems to have similarities to federal politics today".