"It's very exciting, if a little scary" said Nicola Sturgeon, after bounding onto the set of The Daily Show for her much-anticipated encounter with the razor-sharp Jon Stewart.

But it was the FM who landed the first blow, immediately complaining of being described as a 'comedian' on the hit satirical programme's website ahead of her appearance. "You've raised all these expectations I'm going to be funny... I'm a politician" said an uncharacteristically hyper SNP boss, before Stewart could get a word in edgeways.

Within seconds, she had plugged the Fringe festival. Before seven minutes were out, she had spoken up whiskey, haggis, Scottish cities, scenery and comedians to an American audience, while claiming that her home country "had almost invented the modern world".

No doubt she will be greeted on her return home by a flurry of Freedom of Information requests from journalists seeking details of posh hotel bills and excessive transatlantic entourages. But few could accuse her of failing the trip's stated aim of promoting Scotland here.

She revealed that she had "ordered an enquiry" into why the SNP had failed to take three of Scotland's 59 Westminster seats last month. "What, you think you're Saddam Hussein, you get 99 per cent?" fired back Stewart. Perhaps not the most welcome comparison across the pond, but a relaxed FM laughed it off.

A rapport established, there was even some American advice on winning independence. "Let me tell you what they hate... when you throw their stuff into the water," said Stewart.

The biggest laugh came after the FM let slip that Scotland had oil. "May we invade you?" asked the host.

"I think this is progress... Jon, presumably on behalf of the United States, asking permission to invade an oil-producing country, it doesn't usually work that way."

It went down a lazer-guided smartbomb.