Gradle falhou: método DSL Gradle não suportado encontrado: 'exclude ()'

Estou tentando incluir no meu projeto Android (Android Studio - o mais recente, Gradle) as classes do Google Endpoints (Python) que eu codifiquei recentemente. O lado do servidor está todo testado e funcionando.

Não estou acostumado a Gradle, portanto, estou seguindo a documentação emDesenvolvedores do Google. Após alterar o arquivo build.gradle emsrc (conforme instruído pelo documento) para:

build.gradle:

buildscript {
    repositories {
        mavenCentral()
    }
    dependencies {
        classpath 'com.android.tools.build:gradle:0.9.+'
    }
}

apply plugin: 'android'

repositories {
    maven {
        url 'http://google-api-client-libraries.appspot.com/mavenrepo'
    }
    mavenCentral()
    mavenLocal()
}

android {
    compileSdkVersion 19
    buildToolsVersion "19.0.2"

    defaultConfig {
        minSdkVersion 17
        targetSdkVersion 19
        versionCode 1
        versionName "1.0"
    }
    buildTypes {
        release {
            runProguard false
            proguardFiles getDefaultProguardFile('proguard-android.txt'), 'proguard-rules.txt'
        }
    }
}

dependencies {
    compile 'com.android.support:support-v4:+'
    compile 'com.google.android.gms:play-services:4.+'

    compile('com.google.api-client:google-api-client:1.17.0-rc') {
        // Exclude artifacts that the Android SDK/Runtime provides.
        exclude('xpp3:xpp3')
        exclude('org.apache.httpcomponents:httpclient')
        exclude('junit:junit')
        exclude('com.google.android:android')
    }

    compile('com.google.api-client:google-api-client-android:1.17.0-rc') {
        // Exclude play services, since we're not using this yet.
        exclude('com.google.android.google-play-services:google-play-services')
    }

    compile('com.google.http-client:google-http-client-android:1.17.0-rc') {
        exclude('com.google.android:android')
    }

    // This is used by the Google HTTP client library.
    compile('com.google.guava:guava:14.0.+')
}

O Android Studio retorna o seguinte erro:

Gradle 'Project' project refresh failed:
Build script error, unsupported Gradle DSL method found: 'exclude()'!
Possible causes could be:  
- you are using Gradle version where the method is absent 
- you didn't apply Gradle plugin which provides the method
- or there is a mistake in a build script
Build file '/Project/Android/build.gradle' line: 44
: Gradle settings

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