WASHINGTON (CNN) -- In an upcoming interview with the New York Times, Sen.-elect Jim Webb accuses the White House of leaking his somewhat hostile and widely-publicized exchange with President Bush at a White House gathering last month in an attempt to define the Virginia Democrat before he is sworn in, according to the Editor and Publisher trade journal.

In the now infamous exchange, Webb said he would like to see the troops return from Iraq after the president asked how his son, who is currently on a tour of duty there, was doing. "I didn't ask you that," Bush reportedly snapped back.

"This was something that emanated from the White House," Webb told the New York Times Magazine in an interview to be published Sunday. "I did not say anything about this for two weeks. I said nothing publicly at all."

When asked why he thought the White House would leak the exchange Webb said, "Probably as an attempt to try to define me between the election and the beginning of the Congress," Webb replied. "And that's all I am going to say."

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