Washington, Nov 11: The campaign for the 2008 U. S. presidential election is over, but Sarah Palin is still defending herself from the criticism that arose from the cost of her wardrobe and foreign affairs knowledge.

Palin, who was reported to have spent tens of thousands of dollars on her wardrobe, denied knowing anything about it.

"When I arrived at the convention, there were clothes waiting for me, and clothes being ordered for me and the family, for eight of us," Fox News quoted the Alaska Governor as having told Greta Van Susteren, in an interview scheduled to air Monday night.

"And ever since then, those clothes, knowing that they didn''t belong to me ... we boxed them all up, sent them back to the rightful owners, the Republican National Committee, and that''s the story on the clothes," she stated.

Though Palin said the clothes have been returned, the attorneys for the Republican National Committee were still trying to determine exactly what clothing was bought for her, and exactly what has been returned.

Palin also dismissed the controversy over the reported 150,000-dollar bill as "irrelevant".

"It just seems like such an irrelevant issue when you consider what is going on in the world today and how a new administration is being ushered in and people being concerned about the direction of the nation and policies that will be adopted," Palin said.

"Clothes just seem irrelevant.

"I just think that there was unfair criticism that maybe lingers today, that my family and I asked for anybody to pay for any our clothes," she stated.

Palin was also criticised by Republican aides that she could not identify the members of NAFTA or that she thought Africa was a country, and not a continent.

"And never, ever did I talk about, well, gee, is it a country or is it a continent? I just don''t know about this issue. So I don''t know how they took our one discussion on Africa and turned that into what they turned it into ... Along those same lines, of course, was the criticism that supposedly I didn''t know who the participants in NAFTA were," she exclaimed.

Amid speculation nationwide about Palin''s political future, the Governor of Alaska revealed that she was unsure of what 2012 would bring, but added that she did not intend on running away from future criticism.

"Your life is an open book and you open yourself up to criticism and you''d better be ready to take that criticism," she said.

"In other words, don''t run for office if you can''t handle it," she added. (ANI)